How’s that for an alternative ending?!

A blog by 186noutout:

Itâ?(tm)s long been sort of a â??traditionâ?(tm) of the Australian team, — every summer, bring foreign team, get them minimal acclimatization, with practice matches against lowly domestic teams, and before they get the hang of things even minimally, they are 1-0 down in the 4-test series against the â??Gods-of-Cricketâ?(tm) home team, losing cheaply in the Boxing Day test.

By the time the test series ends, the confidence meter of the visitors runs in negative. And after routing them in the prelim matches of the long ODI tri-series, the tired and shattered lot would have no desire to win left in the multiple â??finalsâ?(tm), they would only want to return home. A well-planned arrangement to provide quality amusement to the summer-holiday home crowd, and to bolster averages of home players. And also, everyone knows that the Australian cricket board can NOT make such an itinerary, tailormade to their own requirements, without any bias from the ICC.

And behold, the tradition has been broken.

The indication was clear from the Indian teamâ?(tm)s last tour, especially in the test series, though they were outplayed in the ODIs. But this time, itâ?(tm)s win-win. Any rational person would call it a moral victory for the Indian team in the tests, after the Sydney test fiasco.

And now, into the ODIs

Ours was the least experienced team of all the three teams, having only one of our famed batting quartet in it, and leading from the front a young gun with limited captaining experience at the international level.

Still, the hosts were beaten on straight matches in the feared â??finalsâ?(tm). All the â??arrogance-personifiedâ?(tm) players of the Australian team hung their heads in shame after the last defeat. And the leader of the lot, Ponting, had to concede that they were simply outplayed in both the matches.

Different tune!

Everyone down under is now singing a different tune.
The local media has at last understood that we people ARE tough nuts to crack. Now we do not just give the home team a chase for their money, we play to win, unlike the meek days of Azharuddin. Now India are the â??Dadaâ?(tm). And hats off to the original Dada, of course, for he started all this â??evolutionâ?(tm), … the controlled aggression bit, the passion, the exemplary team spirit in crisis, … everything.

P.S.

Cricket Australia now accuses Bhajji called Haydos a â??liarâ?(tm) and Gilly â??no saintâ?(tm), well, â??an obnoxious little weedâ?(tm) (Hayden said this of Bhajji ) is by no stretch of imagination more sober in calling names than â??liarâ?(tm).