Great...or is just good?

Unfortunately, the Readers are to be subject to another cricket-related post, despite my usual reluctance to blog about anything cricket related. India has just pulled off a deserved victory at the WACA. Meanwhile, at the other end of the Australian mainland, Federer has been pushed all the way, missing a bunch (about 15?) of break points on his way to beating Tipsarevic 10-8 in the 5th.

But this is, as I said, a cricket-post. It does not have to do with the controversies of Sydney 10 days ago, nor does it have to do with the victory at Perth. Rather, it has to do with this absurd notion of how great this (and indeed, Steve Waugh's) Australian team is. Lets take an objective look at the two 16-test runs, shall we?

Waugh:
1-0 v. Zim in Zim
3-0 v. Pak in Aus
3-0 v. Ind in Aus
3-0 v. NZ in NZ
5-0 v. WI in Aus
1-0 v. Ind in Ind

Ponting:
2-0 v. SA in Aus
3-0 v. SA in SA
2-0 v. Ban in Ban
5-0 v. Eng in Aus
2-0 v. SL in Aus
2-0 v. Ind in Aus

Notice a common thread? The abject lack of any wins in alien conditions. Discard NZ and SA - the conditions there are pretty much Aussie-esque conditions. Do I see any wins on the sub-continent? 1 for Waugh at Bombay in the first test of the 2001 series. We all know how that turned out, right? Ponting? 2 wins in Bangladesh. One of them courtesy a double century from Jason Gillespie. Go figure. Do I even see any wins in seaming English conditions?

Don't get me wrong. This is a good team which forces results and wins. Plain stats tell you that teams don't go around winning all their tests over a 3 year period. But besides Ponting's 2 wins in Bangladesh and Waugh's Bombay win - the Aussies haven't had to adapt to different and difficult conditions. Throw in the series in SA if you must - although the SA team of present leave a lot to be desired in the Test arena. India had a pretty good series there in Dec 2006.

They're a good team, but I'll only be convinced once they go play Pak in Pak, Eng in Eng, Ind in Ind, SL in SL and even the WI in WI, and come out trumps. Until then, one can only hope that India wins the Adelaide test, considering we should have been 2-1 up at this stage after the rubbish at Sydney.