After guiding his side to an emphatic World Cup defence at the Wanderers on Sunday, Australian cricket coach John Buchanan sounded a warning to the rest of the world: his side could still improve.
Australia swept aside India’s challenge to win the 2003 final by 125 runs and complete the largest tournament to date without dropping a game.
Sunday’s victory — their 17th on the trot — served to emphasise the Australians complete dominance of the sport, as well as the enormous gulf that exists between them and the other Test playing nations.
So emphatic was their performance in the World Cup that comparisons have been liberally drawn between Ricky Ponting’s outfit and that of Don Bradman’s ”invincibles” of 1948.
Despite that, Buchanan insists that there are areas that can still be improved. ”At the moment we do most things a little bit better than the other sides,” said Buchanan after the match. ”But I have no doubt we can get even better.”
”I think if you look at every part of our game, we can still improve — technically and even tactically.”
From the first over of the final, India were on the back foot and never really looked as though they could put the Australians under pressure.
Zaheer Khan, who had been so effective the entire tournament, conceded 15 runs off the first over of the match. It set the tone for the rest of the innings as Australia surged to a mammoth 359 for two, their highest total in a one day internationals.
”We simply bowled too short,” pointed out Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly, ”and that is the reason we went all over the place.”
Ganguly admitted that the occasion may have been rather nerve racking for some of the players but denied that the strong personalities in the Australian camp had intimidated the younger members of his side.
”No, I wouldn’t say that at all,” responded Ganguly. ”The younger boys were part of the squad when we won the series at home against the Australians.”
Australia won their second world crown despite a glut of injuries and set backs, testimony, according to Ponting, to the country’s extraordinary depth.
”We’ve really been tested this World Cup,” said Ponting who made a blistering 140 not out to spur his side to that massive tally.
”We had injuries to Jason Gillespie and Shane Watson and then there was the Warney (Shane Warne) issue. But the guys who came in for them — Andy Bichel and Andrew Symonds — have had absolutely wonderful World Cups.
”It says a lot about the depth of Australian cricket.” – Sapa