There is a strange sense of anguish about present-day Australian cricket Defeat is tough. Losses against the team we hate more than any other in world sport are excruciating.
And considering we haven't lost an Ashes series at home since 1986-87 there are a lot of avid Australian cricket fans that don't know what it is like to watch first-hand their side cop it from the Poms. Enter a strange new world.
But it is from that generation that Australia wi ll draw on talent to turnaround their flagging fortunes.
Unfortunately, the cupboard is a little bare at the moment. Indeed, the Australian team has been playing on rations, too often from NSW, for too long. And the combination looks like a mishmash of leftovers.
The gumleaf mafia have put a price on the Test captain's head and the person set to fill his concrete shoes doesn't quite have the blessing of all the cricket mob. Other candidates are reluctant to come forward. One of the openers should be batting lower in the order, the No.6 batsman is a bowler and the nation's best spinner, whoever that may be this week, doesn't play at all.
The gumleaf mafia have put a price on the Test captain's head and the person set to fill his concrete shoes doesn't quite have the blessing of all the cricket mob. Other candidates are reluctant to come forward. One of the openers should be batting lower in the order, the No.6 batsman is a bowler and the nation's best spinner, whoever that may be this week, doesn't play at all.
So how can we fix Australian cricket? There needs to be some winds of change and it could a draft.
