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Ballseye
Saiful Kaiser
10/13/2005
Brian Lara's unenviable sequence of scores 0-5-0 demanded an excuse and he gave it: lack of match practice. See, we said so too. They, World XI, should have played at least ten matches to get into the right groove. Some of them would have got injured and some would have become mad, sad or bad. And then they would have got a highly cohesive and professional unit who would not moan about anything let alone match practice. And of course they would have won everything, partisan umpiring or not.
Meanwhile, Australians Justin Langer and Mathew Hayden were heard jeering at Flintoff's excuse that they had not jelled as a team. The two Aussies gloated about their 'superiority' and piously said that the World XI should not have any excuses, valid or otherwise.
Detractors move into the fray with their own explanation of the phenomenon: the fact of the matter is that after losing to Bangladesh the Australians have shown that they are over the hill and can only hold up their pants with the help of sympathetic onfield officials (read umpires) and having been let off the hook by getting to play against a World XI who may have great players but would hardly have time to get their act together as a team. Also the two mentioned above will probably miss the nest World Cup. So this is their last hurrah.
Anyway, Lara says he feels more comfortable laying Tests and assures everyone that he will give 100 percent. But he also wants his teammates to give the same percentage to the forthcoming Tests. Otherwise the result, he hints will be the same: Australia-1, World XI-0.
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