Tuesday, December 30, 2008

AUSTRALIAN MEDIA MOURNS ON AUSSIE TEAMS WATERLOO


The Australian media mourned the 'crumbling of an empire' with the Aussies on the verge of losing the second Test against South Africa here and their first home series loss since 1992-93.The media asked the selectors to make wholesale changes in the team for the third and final Test starting in Sydney on January 3 and said if they don't do that they should also be sacked.

Headlined 'Day that shook the world champs as Ricky Ponting's empire crumbles', The Australian wrote, "Not even Ricky Ponting's tragic heroics can avoid the reality that if the selectors do not make wholesale changes for the last Test in Sydney then they, too, should be sacked."The Sydney Morning Herald echoed the sad reality of Australia's decline but sympathised with Ponting.

"An empire is crumbling around Ricky Ponting, who in agonising circumstances stands 153 runs away from becoming the first Australian captain in 16 years to preside over a series defeat on home soil," it said."The handover, when it came, was almost poetic. Captain Ricky Ponting had played an innings that amounted to a lone last stand against the usurpers from South Africa and the march of time," The Age wrote under the headline 'Winds of change at MCG'."All good things come to an end, but the end nonetheless often still comes as a shock. This was true of Ponting's innings and Australia's, metaphorically a long and good one, both suddenly over.

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