Aussie media questions selections, lauds Proteas

MELBOURNE: Online polls seeking replacements for ageing "passengers" Matthew Hayden and Brett Lee, questioning team selection and captaincy and admiring South Africa were all part of the Australian media's bitter reaction to their cricket team's astonishing slump.
    
It was a tone of exasperation in the media after Ricky Ponting's men lost a home series for the first time in 16 years after being beaten by nine wickets in the second Test here that left the world champions 0-2 down in the three-match series against the Proteas.
    
"South Africa humiliates Aussies," wrote The Daily Telegraph in a report that also had links to an online poll asking readers to vote for the players, they think, are best to replace Lee and Hayden.
    
Noted cricket writer Peter Roebuck turned the heat on the selectors and said it was high time they took a part of the blame for the Aussie slide.
    
"Although the well-paid selectors remain obtuse, the time has come to think about tomorrow. The team chosen for Sydney does not serve the purpose. Not by a long chalk. An opportunity to play a young opener and an aggressive spinner has been spurned," he said.
    
The Sydney Morning Herald's report was headlined "A Test of faith in land of tragics".
    
"The end of a year, the end of an era. Shortly after 2pm on the final day of five, Hashim Amla prodded a loose ball into the outfield and ambled two runs. They gave South Africa a whopping nine-wicket win and condemned Australia to its first Test series defeat at home since 1992-93," it said.
    
"Ricky Ponting's patched-up team now travel to Sydney for the third and final Test on Saturday, where it must avoid a whitewash if it is to retain its fragile, and increasingly false, supremacy atop the world Test cricket rankings," the daily declared.
    
"A youthful, determined, resilient side that has shown traditional Australian virtues, the visitors richly deserved their success. By contrast, the Australians were erratic in selection, questionable in captaincy and lacked reliable opening batsmen and bowlers."
    
The Australian lamented the home team's failure to capitalise even positions of strength during the two matches.
    
"A rampant South Africa has posted its first series winon Australian soil with a crushing nine-wicket win at the MCG today," it said.
    
"It condemned the struggling Australians to their first series loss at home in 16 years, a staggering achievement given the hosts were in a dominant position in Perth and in Melbourne," the newspaper wrote.
    
The Herald Sun chose to praise the visitors, saying their triumph marked the beginning of a new era in international cricket.
    
"Graeme Smith said cricket had a new world order as South Africa plotted to compound Australia's misery by stealing its No. 1 crown in Sydney."
    
"The bubbling Proteas will take Australia's No. 1 Test ranking if they sweep the three-Test series at the SCG. Even if they don't win the third Test starting on Saturday, South Africa is Test cricket's new top dog."
    
"As Australia's dominance came to an end, tears flowed in the South African dressing room as players realised they were on the verge of being crowned the world's best side," the newspaper said.
    
Roebuck echoed the sentiment in his column titled, "United effort and triumph bring Rainbow Nation watershed moment."
    
"South Africa have secured the most significant victory in their cricketing history. It was a triumph that reached beyond sport," he said.
    
Roebuck said the win not just presents the South Africans as a top-class team but also as a truly international side comprising players of all backgrounds.
    
"When Hashim Amla flicked another ball off his pads and scampered down the wicket for the winning run, he achieved more than mere victory. It was a stroke that spoke for generations of Indian cricketers unable to compete for places in the national team. Suddenly, they knew their records meant something, that they had been right, the champions of previous generations could play the game.
    
"When JP Duminy built his accomplished innings, he was representing a coloured community that languished for so many years in a twilight world. When Makhaya Ntini took wickets, he was uplifting downtrodden tribes. If hearts swelled with pride across the country, it'd hardly be surprising. Others rejoiced in the peaceful revolution that made it possible," he explained.