The Australian cricket team is officially out of the T20 World Cup – but how much did it actually mean to them?
Aaron Finch’s pre-tournament comments admitting his side was fatigued coupled with Glenn Maxwell’s admission that the tournament didn’t mean anything has irked Simon O’Donnell.
Maxwell said after the fact that the sheer quantity of cricket made it harder to care about their elimination from the World Cup.
“You can’t dwell on it. I think you move on pretty quickly,” Maxwell said.
“We‘ve got a one-day series against England probably 24 hours later and then we’ve got the Big Bash and then we’ve got four-day cricket.
“Cricket never stops so you don’t get time to dwell. Maybe when you retire you think back to it would have been nice to win that but it doesn’t mean anything.
“I wish we had have won but we didn’t.”
Speaking on SEN Breakfast with Sam Edmund, O’Donnell, a former Australian cricketer, laid out his concerns.
The former all-rounder expressed significant frustration at how little representing Australia seemingly meant to the team.
Edmund: “It was a World Cup campaign (by the Aussies) that never really got any momentum. I think Maxwell’s comments said everything about how the players felt, how the team felt and even how (the fans) felt around this format and this team. There was just no want or desire.”
O’Donnell: “I couldn’t understand how emotionless we were, particularly in that format. You’ve got to be up to win T20s and I thought we just looked not there.
“That’s hard to probably explain, but you just look at the other teams and the way they were going about it and how emotionally engaged in the game they were and there were times where you just felt the Aussies switched on and switched off.
“We were never settled. In the lead-in games we were never settled. They were still fiddling with the order and stuff.
“It’s hard to put your finger on it, but we were off pace and it would’ve been a fluke to get into a semi. We didn’t deserve it. We weren’t playing good enough cricket.
“David Warner didn’t go too bad in that last game, but I think he had four digs for 26 runs. We were just way off.”
Edmund: “We didn’t have anyone catch fire with the bat or the ball.”
O’Donnell: “I think our best batter was 16th (Marcus Stoinis) in total of runs. It was just nothing. It was a neutral tournament. We were there, but we weren’t there.”
Edmund: “Aaron Finch used the word ‘fatigue’ before the tournament had even started.”
O’Donnell: “That gets up my goat, that.”
Edmund: “Only Pakistan had a more hectic schedule than us in recent times. Australia played 15 white ball games in a month coming in. Were they jaded? Is the schedule too packed?”
O’Donnell: “I think that’s a problem that needs to be further discussed and addressed, particularly when a captain of the national team is saying it before a tournament starts. That’s white flag stuff before it even starts.
“We understand where that fatigue comes from and why it’s there. I’m sure they’ll have those discussions, but we can’t go to tournaments like this and still play in the IPL and all the things we do outside of playing for Australia.
“People are putting a lot more importance on outside tournaments than they are of climbing the ladder to get to play for Australia and missing an IPL to make sure they’re right for a tournament like this. I must admit, the fatigue (excuse) doesn’t hold water with me.”
Edmund: “Why is that?”
O’Donnell: “You’re playing for your country. Before you play a tournament for your country, you’re saying ‘we’re very tired’. It’s just not right. I’m not saying they weren’t fatigued, but if they were, something has to be addressed. You can’t now go to the 50 over World Cup and say ‘we’re tired’.
“You’ve got to have a build-up to these things and issue a level of importance to them. We were sold going into this World Cup on, ‘oh the team is this and the team is doing this and we’ve picked our squad and we’re building up to defend our title’, it was a pretty poor defence.
“In saying that, no nation has hosted it and won it in the 50 over form or the 20 over form. There is extra pressure that comes with having it in your own country.
“India play all the time in all three formats. They play constantly and they’re not tired. That’s not an option. Or they don’t admit it. It is a privilege to play for you country.”