Why does Australia dominate cricket competitions? In the past fifteen years, they have suffered three straight home series losses to South Africa, twice to India, and once to England, which has somewhat damaged their home Test record. Their dream team of the 1990s and 2000s has won two ODI men’s World Cups, in 2015 and 2023, even after they retired. Together, their men’s and women’s teams have taken home almost 20 world championships. In the past 40 years, they have won bilateral series and tournaments practically everywhere, including ICC tournaments in South Africa, England, New Zealand, India, and domestically. How does one achieve such a skill?
Not in a single day, and not if the main sport in your nation is the only one. Even the South African cricket team has an excellent home-and-away record in bilateral series, despite having a dismal record in ICC tournaments, particularly in knockout games. Like the Aussies, the Proteas are multi-sport champions. Jonty Rhodes would have been a hockey star if he hadn’t been a cricket player. The Australian Waugh twins excelled in a variety of sports before settling on cricket. Notwithstanding their recent failure, England has impressed both domestically and internationally after playing subpar cricket in the 1990s and early 2000s. Smaller New Zealand surprises a lot of people with its incredible track record of making it to the semifinals.
New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, and England all foster a sports culture. Like in Western Europe and North America, the common people in these nations participate in sports on a regular basis and attend local teams’ league matches. American football, baseball, ice hockey, and basketball are the most popular college sports in North America. Football in Europe and South America follows suit. or rugby played by teams from Europe and the Southern Hemisphere.
 Sure, they support their teams, but they care even more about a good game. They honor a combative adversary. Even though many African countries lack “first world” resources, they unquestionably have an athletic temperament. The game transcends the sports celebrity.
And what did we observe as a group of Indian fans during the World Cup? The complete opposite of competitive spirit. Why? First, consider our gregarious Indian pundits, a few of whom were once great. Yes, India played fantastic cricket, but the team was exaggerated by most Indian TV talk shows and commentary. As the tournament went on, their exaggerations became even more pronounced as India dominated the whole thing but lost in the end.
These pundits and the average Indian cricket fan appear to be two sides of the same coin: they support the Indian team’s victory over cricket as a sport. Despite India’s progress in certain Olympic sports, it is widely acknowledged that cricket remains the country’s most popular sport. However, the actions of the fans as a group betrayed a loser mentality.
One hopes that India will emulate and adapt the Australian way in the coming years. Become a dominant force in a variety of sports so that we can observe a “post-cricket India.” Over time, infrastructure (schools, even universities) was built in Australia, America, and China to support collegiate rugby, American football, basketball, and athletics. The university town is the beating heart of American sports. India needs to follow their example. not depend just on cricket. not create fans and pundits who are so eager to watch their team succeed that they fail to recognize the incredible, boundary-pushing quality of all sports.
