THE way modern cricket tours are scheduled, it is well-nigh impossible for a team or an individual to try and recapture form and be competitive. Apart from the tour of England, where there is a gap between Test matches, the other tours invariably have back-to-back Tests and this does not give players the time to rest physically as well as mentally. While this suits the team that is doing well and winning matches, it does not help the players who are good but whose form may have slipped a bit. Back-to-back games invariably produce one team domination. Perhaps there are exceptions, like England who bounced back from a Test down in Sri Lanka to win the other two and India who triumphed 2-1 against Australia after being squarely beaten by the Australians in the first Test.
It especially becomes hard if the manner of defeat and the margin have been overwhelming. That's why it has been a bit disappointing to see that while England and their captain Nasser Hussain were given plenty of credit for their splendid comeback in Sri Lanka and deservedly so, it has not been the case with India and Sourav Ganguly where only the individuals who were instrumental in India's fight-back have won the kudos and not the skipper.
"Tigers at home, but lambs abroad' is often a term derogatorily used about the Indians, but then not too many teams, apart from the awesome Aussies, win overseas. The South Africans, who were being touted as the team to beat Australia, when the season began in October, have lost five consecutive Test matches against Australia.
Amazingly there are many similarities between South Africa and Australia. The countries are sports-mad and there is almost equal coverage in the print and electronic media of all the sports, so no sport can say that one is favoured over the other. Both the countries play hard and love to relax after the game with a beer or two. Both countries also have a very developed sports medicine and fitness training regimes that keep their athletes in the best possible shape. The one big difference is the mental aspect and it is here that the Australians tower above South Africans and other teams as well.
The way an Australian cricketer walks out is a sight. In that walk there is a hint of arrogance, a over-confidence so to say but it does convey to the watcher that the man going out knows what he has got to do and is going to do it, come what may. It's as if he is saying to the opposition that "Hey I have come here and you better do as I say." Sure, it doesn't work all the time but in the last few years it hasn't failed them too often.
The simple difference between Australia and South Africa - both sport a green cap - is one set of men believe in themselves while the other is riddled with self-doubt.
Against any other team, except Australia, the South Africans too show the disdainful attitude of the Australians. The belief that anything the opposition does they can do it better.
That's why the South Africans were considered a serious challenger to the Australians, but the way they have been annihilated and the controversies that the team has been plunged in show the mental fragilty of the Proteas.
Again, the teams that are not doing well are the ones that seem to make the headlines and the news, for the wrong reasons. In Australia, the South African's team selection of a coloured player in the final eleven evoked a controversy.
This would have reflected in the dressing room and a dressing room where the teammates cannot see eye to eye will never be a harmonious one. A dressing room where players talk about their colleague when he is absent is never going to be a happy one and at the end of the day it will affect the performance even if there's a tiny dot of suspicion about the other. With all this how can a player perform at his best?
The Australians too, when they came to South Africa, were a bit jangled because their captain Steve Waugh was dropped from the one-day side. Suddenly, the invincibility around him seems to have gone. It does appear, at the time of writing, that it has left a scar on a very, very tough mind.
Not that Waugh was in great form in Australia at the start of the season, but the shock of being dropped has made his footwork pretty tentative and he seems to lack confidence. This, then was the ideal opportunity for the South Africans to strike. But they first lost their own skipper Shaun Pollock to an injury that sidelined him from all the Tests and then one of their key players Darryl Cullinan walked out of the squad - after being recalled to the team - because he wasn't given a contract by the United Cricket Board of South Africa. So mentally, instead of the Australians being vulnerable, it was the South Africans who were and this was visible the way they capitulated in the first two Tests.
It is here that the back-to-back Test matches might have helped Australia. With injuries building up and the local media getting more and more hostile at them, the South Africans found it hard on and off the field. When going on to the field is a relief and not a joy, then again the performance is not going to be the best. Probably this has what happened to South Africa in the first two Tests.
This is a great cricket team and we have the privilege of seeing them. If the youngsters need to learn something it is the mental toughness, like the Australians have.
Mental toughness will lead to self-belief, self-confidence and this will enhance performance. This is the way to become a champion.
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