I fundamentally disagree, although it’s a great post.
No Aussies apart from cricket administrators think of India’s economic power in cricket.
Cricket is the poor cousin of both AFL and Rugby League, both of which are funded by gate receipts and TV rights in Australia.
Australia is a wealthy country which generates enough revenue for the international players to earn a seven figure income each year.
Yes, the top players top that up with IPL income - but they view that as free money for playing in a joke event.
Australia almost always lose away in Asia, which is why the Langer generation viewed India as the Final Frontier.
But they also beat India easily at home except when they are under-strength. No-one in Australia took the drawn series at home to India in 03-04 as seriously as the one drawn at home to New Zealand three years earlier, because there was no McGrath or Warne.
And people were baffled when the Indian team threatened to go home after Monkeygate. The Aussie view was that the Indians had overvalued the draw against Australia Minus Warne And McGrath in 03-04, and wrongly expected to compete in 07-08. And when they lost, the Aussie view is that they threw their toys out of the pram.
So even if India does well next month in Australia it will be disregarded in the exact same way, due to the absence of Smith and Warner. Everyone knows that this is a rubbish Indian team which has already lost six overseas Tests in 2018. If they do well in Australia it will be viewed as a consequence of the Cape Town ball tampering bans, not an actual achievement.
Fair enough we disagree, but attending matches or talking with cricket fans here, I get a very different picture than yours. This is what I hear/why.
Of course we recognise India's economic power- yes we are wealthy enough to stand on our own- but we are not blind to witnessing the power this gives India. We see it in the pull of the IPL and watch with sadness as once great rivals such as WI are slowly shredded by the pull of IPL on players. We wonder who is next. We see it in the craven way our own Board jumped into bed with India in the Big Three fiasco, which was clearly going to be only about $ and pleasing India and not for the good of world cricket. We see it in India's influence over ICC player sanctions & test status approvals (hello Bangladesh). We see it in India's scheduling power vs other countries etc, Englands desperation to do catch up & rival or stave off the IPL. Just because we also have decent revenue doesn't mean we do not see the growth of this power and some diminishing of the old order.
Cricket is not "poor cousin" to the football codes.
a) Cricket is largely a summer sport- it owns the country during Summer and the football codes predominate in Winter.
b) Cricket is the ONLY
truly national sport. Rugby League is only relevant on the East Coast (and not even the very Souther part of that). AFL covers a large area but not two of the largest population centres (NSW & QLD where it is still fairly minor, certainly not more important than cricket in the psyche).
c) Those football codes you mention are not international in scope (OK, RL is played in dirt poor PNG, is minor sport in NZ and played in only the Northern part of England). They can't match cricket's growth, reach and the money for top players is similar & Shield players earn as much (or more with BBL) as average footballers if you look at the wage MOST footballers or the top players in either sports command.
E.g Minimum wage in RL is $80 000, minimum Shield retainer + BBL minimum is $81 000 or so. Top 1% footballer might earn $1 million to $1.5 million. Top CA retainer is $1.5 million (captain) or $800 000, with MATCH PAYMENTS of $100/$200 000 easily possible on top of that.
And we haven't even got to IPL yet.
No-one disregards that drawn home series. They all hurt. It is the Australian TEAM, we expect them to do well whether or not certain players are in. We WON a WC without Warne. We lost him for a whole year with suspension and similar a punt for operations before and we don't disregard those years. I have NEVER heard anyone disregard the 2005 Ashes because McGrath trod on a ball and missed a match. We are Aussies, we expect the team to deal with adversity not make excuses.
We admit the Kiwi's out-thought us the other drawn series. We admit admit played well enough to draw on theirs. I've never heard the McGrath/Warnbe excuse, we had good players. We had McGill, Gillespie, Lee etc. If anything I hear people lament the pitches were a bit slow, but that has been happening over time for years.
If Anything I hear people enjoyed that series. If it's brought up it's with a wry smile at the way Ganguly came out swinging in Brisbane, he rode his luck for sure but made one of the best hundreds we'd seen by a visiting Asian batsmen in a live Test on our bounciest wicket since Roy Fredericks. He made a statement and we raised our eyebrows. They'd come to play.
I still hear talk about Kumble's courage at Adelaide, was he 0/100? Ended with 5/150 and never looked beaten, never hid, always wanted to bowl. He won a lot of fans that day. I remember newspapers calling him the heart of a lion.
Completely disagree with you on how that series is perceived. It was a cracker. If anything Warne/McGrath is never remembered, never mentioned because there was so much else to talk about than any random absences.
Monkey gate reaction was anger, not bafflement. It was the first hint of the aforesaid power over ICC and sanctions that Australians
perceive India to have. It was a huge storm over who was in the right or wrong, with Aussies in debate on both camp. Strong opinions on our own players behaviour, on India's, on the shift in cricket power the boards displayed when India's board stepped in all over the top of the ICC and our own board sank down meekly. Anger. No one was baffled.
I respectfully disagree.
Why do Indians care so much what Pakistanis or anyone else thinks whether it's a rivalry or not?
