Written by In Australia on Boxing Day, there are two main sporting events that stir the nation’s interest, these are the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, and the Boxing Day Cricket Test.
My English friends like to give me a hard time over the cricket, and there is a long-standing friendly rivalry between Australian and the ‘Motherland’. But it’s a good sign of a mature and temperate culture to be in competition and be able to go to war on the sporting field without literally going to war.
The 2021 Test against England was a little bit of a whitewash – let’s be honest – but camaraderie and national pride and support are better than victory any day. That support was tested with the UK media revealing its annoyance at its own team declaring that England has “forgotten how to win” with a team that “doesn’t have the patience for Test cricket”. Former England captain Michael Vaughan championed the team’s efforts but concurred with the media opinion that after a glimmer of hope, the team habitually and rapidly loses traction in the match. Another former captain, Mike Atherton, writing for The Times labels the team’s start as ‘dismal’.
Former Aussie cricketer and vocal supporter of the sport, Shane Warne, tweeted; “Eng[land] had a great day with the ball & fought back hard. @jimmy9 [English cricketer James Anderson] bowled the best he’s bowled in Oz & the last 45 mins was test cricket at its best. Proper contest. Bowlers steaming in, batters trying to survive, crowd totally involved. Just test cricket.” This positive perspective was met with endless comments bemoaning the poor English performance. Warne preferred to congratulate all the players for their efforts and the fans for their continued engagement with the sport.
Man of the match Scott Boland, who now ranks at the top of the all-time Test matches averages list, will hopefully be seen as another indigenous success story that will encourage younger indigenous players to pursue a sporting career. But it’s easy to garner support when you’re the hero, it’s most needed when the ‘chips are down’. This is evidenced time and again in children’s sporting events, where even a child that’s having a bad game will bolster when cheered for, and conversely one that is doing well can suddenly falter when heckled.
The culture of authentic support drives well-being and engagement and ensures the alignment of values and goals for the improvement of not only player conditions, but also team success. This can be said of any organization, an employee that feels that their company cares about them is more likely to perform better and so contribute to a successfully functioning organization.
But returning to the cricket … at this point in time, Australia is on record as having won 25, lost 11 and drawn nine in 45 Tests matches started on Boxing Day since 1980 …. But who’s counting?