OWN CORRESPONDENT, London | Monday 11.15am.
AUSTRALIA’S deliberate slow play during their cricket World Cup victory over the West Indies was greeted with disdain in the English press on Monday.
Steve Waugh’s decision to bat as slowly as possible to try and help the West Indies qualify for the second round instead of New Zealand – in the process helping Australia’s own chances in the next phase – reduced the tournament to a “farce”, accoring to the Daily Mail.
It said the Old Trafford crowd, many of them Australians, “booed its contempt” when it realised what the Australians were up to. With teams retaining points won against fellow qualifiers in the second round, Australia wanted the West Indies to qualify rather than the New Zealanders, who had beaten Waugh’s side earlier.
New Zealand, who play Scotland in their last group B game on Monday, now know what they must do. If they bat first and score 200, they must win by at least 121 runs, if they score 250 they must win by 118 to qualify ahead of the West Indies on run rate. New Zealand skipper Stephen Fleming was reported as saying he understood why the Australians had played as they did.
Meanwhile England’s exit from the World Cup was greeted with a mixture of resignation, gallows humour and invective by the press on Monday. The tabloids stuck to invective, the Sun with a huge back-page headline screaming: “Guilty of wrecking English cricket.”
The Daily Star added: “Spinless England were last night branded a bunch of bottlers – by their own coach.” The Daily Mail said many of Alec Stewart’s side were in tears after their “humiliating end.”
The broadsheets, however, were almost as vitriolic. The Daily Telegraph said Graeme Hick was particularly to blame for losing his wicket, calling it “a disgraceful way to go, an abdication.” It added: “We have surely seen the last of him now as as England player.”
Chairman of England selectors David Graveney, however, said it was too early to discuss Stewart’s future, saying: “We will let the dust settle.”