Men in Baggy Green play for pride

By Pradeep Rajan

Australian cricket has always fascinated me.
Although I am a lover of the copybook cricket style, I admire the Australians, not for their clinical approach, but for their staunch respect for the game.It is their reverence for the game that has taken the Australian cricket to stratospheric levels.
One would hardly find a great Australian player trying to portray a “larger-than-game-image”.
I was able to see that for myself when I met former greats like Richie Benaud, Ian Chappell, Dennis Lillee and Mark Taylor, while covering a Test and triangular one-day series involving Australia, India and Pakistan in 2000.Strike up a conversation with one of these legendary players, they would speak of their achievements only after giving due credit to the game.
I have not seen any other team respecting its official cap like the Australians, who take pride in donning the Baggy Green (the coveted cap of the national team).
There’s an interesting anecdote that explains the spirit of the Baggy Green.
When Australia lost the Adelaide Test in 2003 against India, coach John Buchanan sent an open letter to his players, telling them that their loss was “unbaggygreen”.
Such is the pride associated with the coveted Baggy Green.
In fact, all that Australian captain Ricky Ponting needs to do is to stare at his men’s Baggy Green to perk up their game.
The man, who most recently, waxed eloquent about the prized cap was Justin Langer, who retired at the end of Australia’s 5-0 win against England in the Ashes series.
Announcing his retirement, Langer said: “You know what? It’s not just a game to me. I’ve had the same cap for 13 years. It’s the greatest game in the world. I love it, and I’ll be involved in it until my last breath. “But it’s not just a game to me. It’s been a vehicle. I’ve learned how to handle success, how to handle criticism, how to handle failure, how to fight back from adversity. I’ve learned about mateship, leadership. It’s all because of the baggy green cap.”
The pride is the tonic for victory. The Aussie cricketers may be aggressive, chatty and bully, but they can be pardoned because they do it in their pursuit of victory.
Said Ravi Shastri, India’s new coach-cum-manager: “This is a sport and it has to be aggressive. Otherwise you wear bangles and play.
“I never had any problems playing against Australia. I played my best cricket against them.”
Shastri, in nine Tests against Australia, with six of them played Down Under, averages 77.75.
A keen watcher of Australian cricket, Shastri said that the Aussie have set high standards that is difficult to emulate.
“There is a constant supply line happening, which is good. What they do better than any other cricketing country is they realise when they should tell a guy to move on in life,” said Shastri.
He said this helps Australia to blood younger players at the right time instead making them sit on the bench.
“Otherwise a guy like Steve Waugh (former Australian captain) would have played till he is 45.”
Waugh retired in 2004 at the age of 37, even though many felt that he had some more cricket left.Waugh’s team which dominated Test and one-day international matches from 1998 was called the “indomitables” and was almost in the same league of great Don Bradman’s “invincibles” team of the 1940s.
In fact, there is no prouder wearer of the Baggy Green than Waugh, whose 18-year-old cap looked tattered, frayed and faded when he called quits.Waugh captaincy reflected his personality: aggressive, determined and a never-say-die attitude.
His mother Beverly Waugh told me: “When it comes to leading the team, he just blocks everything else. People say he never smiles but that is not true.
“He says to me that when he gets down there, ‘I have to focus’.”
Waugh’s brand of leadership revolutionised captaincy, leaving a strong blueprint, with emphasis on task awareness, for his successor Ricky Ponting.
Explained Sandy Gordon, former Australian team psychologist: “We never talk about winning games but what we have to do to play well.”
With that kind of attitude, sky is the limit for Australian cricket.