Bridgetown, Barbados: Australia coach John Buchanan once said that he desparately wanted someone to "give them a game at one-day cricket."
Buchanan got his wish. Defeats against England and New Zealand followed, forcing the detractors of the Australian cricket team to come out saying that this was it. This was the beginning of the end.
The world very nearly believed them.
Fast forward to the cricket World Cup. One more game to go - the all important final - and Sir Vivian Richards is now saying, "I believe that there is still one more upset due in this tournament."
Was Richards referring to Australia? Surely not? But then, maybe he was just saying what the public wanted to hear: that the world is getting weary of Australia's winning ways and is praying for a change of guard.
The Sri Lankans, in this case, will do very nicely, thank you. Everyone you talk to in the streets of Bridgetown want the Sri Lankans to win. And truth be told, they are currently perhaps the only team who have the firepower to hold off the Australian juggernaut for a third title.
There is no easy route to the top, but the fact is that the Australians have known this all along. By befriending adversity, captain Ricky Ponting has been able to make equally big strides.
Tough minded
What makes the Aussies so vastly superior to the others? The answer perhaps is simple: tough minded, remorseless bullying. In the quest for realising and achieving a goal they would use every possible weapon at their disposal. What they have now been rewarded with is a period of dominance that has been so intimidating and staggering that it can safely be compared to the West Indies' all-conquering era in the 1980s.
The Aussies here have shown that for every individual who fails, another individual is ready to step up to the plate, a captain who is simply gagging to enter into the record books and possesses a burning will to do so, and a culture of excellence that tolerates nothing but success of the highest order.
Ricky Ponting has a plan: he wants to personally oversee the formation of the Australian cricketing reich during his tenure. He wants to build a platform on which this glorious empire can base itself without fear of being toppled but at the risk of alienation.
How long this will take has not been factored in as yet. The reasons for Ponting's success are out-and-out team efforts and following the high profile retirement of a few of their stars, other potentially talented players have taken their place.
Success comes due to a number of factors in a team. At least that's what opening batsman Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist endorse, Ponting too or for that matter, Glenn McGrath and Shaun Tait.
Should they win on Saturday, it will be difficult to chart out Australia's route to immortality. We celebrated their unscheduled decline over a couple of games but the way they have dominated since then gives the impression that we will have to suffer their austerities yet again.
