Former Australian Test captain Tim Paine was thrilled to see his former teammates win the ODI World Cup overnight against India.
Coming into the game as heavy underdogs against a side in home conditions, no one would have expected how dominant Australia were as they cruised to a six-wicket victory in Ahmedabad.
The Aussies are now current ODI World Cup holders, Ashes holders and World Test Championship holders, while they also recently claimed the T20 World Cup in 2021.
Having achieved almost everything there is in the international game, Paine believes that several players will now rightly be considered as all-time greats of Australian cricket.
He hopes that this win makes the public appreciate the likes of David Warner, Pat Cummins, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Glenn Maxwell as they rightly get the credit they deserve as icons of the sport in our country.
“I think last night actually gives this generation of Australian cricketers the credit they deserve,” Paine told SEN Whateley.
“Some of the guys we've seen in that team last night have won two World Cups, they’ve won a T20 World Cup, they've won the World Test Championship.
“This cements five or six of the players in that team last night as some of the absolute all-time greats of Australian cricket.
“I think over the last two or three years, they haven't got that credit.
“Steve Smith, David Warner, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Glenn Maxwell among others.
“There's a list of those guys that will be remembered now.
“You've got to win big tournaments and World Cups to cement that.”
As well as cementing the legacies of several individual players, Paine expects the win to do the same for the team as a whole as they can now sit firmly alongside the best Australian teams to ever do it.
“This team and this generation also for me now go down as one of the greats,” Paine said.
“They've been extraordinary. I'm just so happy for them that they now get the credit that I think they deserve.”
With the win, Australia have now won World Cups in each decade since the 1980s and Paine says that sides simply expect to win and demand success once they don the green and gold kit.
“We've been very lucky as Australian cricketers since the early eighties to have great teams,” Paine said.
“It's just engrained in you that when you go and pull that shirt on, you expect to win.
“We know that our best cricket is always going to be competitive.
“Look at what happened last night, against a country of 1.5 billion people, their number one sport, in their own conditions.
“For a country of 25 million (like Australia) to go out and win it. The numbers against that are just staggering.”
Australia now have six men’s ODI World Cup titles to their name, four ahead of the next best with India and West Indies holding two apiece.