da lvbet： SHARJAH – The Australian cricket team is
da premier bet： Michael Donaldson14-Oct-2002SHARJAH – The Australian cricket team is “at the end of an era” andrisks holding on to the Waugh brothers for too long, according toPakistan coach Richard Pybus.His team has just been absolutely walloped by Australia in the secondcricket Test here but Englishman Pybus believes the long-term problemslie in the Aussie camp – and particularly with the Waugh twins.Pybus, in a thoughtful commentary on the state of Australian cricketahead of the Ashes tour, believes the world champion’s two-day trouncingof an inexperienced Pakistan only masks deep-seated problems.”Something that will be very positive for the English is that thisAustralian team is at an end of an era,” Pybus said.”It will be easy here after this second Test to be comfortable againbecause they’ve put us under the cosh but I think in the Australian campthey’ll know there are things that are not as they should be.”He warned the Australian selectors to think about blooding new playersor risk the team going stale.”I think it’s a dangerous place to be when you hold on and hold on,” hesaid in reference to the Waughs, who have played 277 Tests between them.”Whether they blood new players for the Ashes or they hold on untilafter the Ashes series … if you’re not consistently renewing yourteam, re-energising it, you start to become a little stagnant.”He believed the 37-year-old Waugh twins were out of form because theywere suffering from “split focus” as they started to look to life aftercricket. And technically, other teams had worked them out and had becomeexpert at shutting down their scoring options.”It’s as much a mental approach as a technique.”The Waugh brothers score in particular areas – if you shut down thoseareas it makes life very difficult. When you get limited in certainareas you start to lack trust in your judgement and it becomes adifferent place out in the middle.”Combine that with the fact they’re coming towards the end of careers… when a player comes to a certain point in his career when he’sstarting to have to make decisions about “where to from here” you startto get a split focus.”You can’t have a dual focus – you have to have a single focus and thatis scoring runs.”That’s where the question marks are.”Pybus said the media put pressure on the twins but he thought Steve andMark Waugh “were very conscious” about their futures out of cricket.”They’ve been professional cricketers for a very long time.”Do you become a commentator, do you go out in the big wide world andwork in an office – these are big questions, mid-30s crisis questionsand I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s where they are now.”Pybus also speculated that Steve Waugh would be looking over hisshoulder at Ricky Ponting, who took the one-day captaincy from himearlier this year.”They’ve got a captain in waiting in Ricky Ponting and whatever anyonesays there will be a little bit of electricity between the incumbent andthe man in waiting.”Steve Waugh does look like he’s under a tremendous amount of pressure.”
