2002-03 Annual R eport 2002-03 Annual R eport - Australian Sports ...

Back, left to right: Errol Alcott (Physiotherapist), Jock Campbell (Physical Performance Manager), Jimmy Maher, Bradley Hogg, Mike Young (Specialist Throwing Coach), Tim
Nielsen (Assistant Coach/Performance Analyst).
Middle, left to right: Darren Lehmann, Andrew Symonds, Andrew Bichel, Jason Gillespie, Matthew Hayden, Brett Lee, Ian Harvey, Lucy Frostick (Team Massage Therapist).
Front, left to right: Damien Martyn, Glenn McGrath, Ricky Ponting (Captain), John Buchanan (Coach), Adam Gilchrist (Vice-captain), Stephen Bernard (Team Manager), Shane
Warne, Michael Bevan.
ICC CRICKET WORLD CUP IN
SOUTHERN AFRICA, 2003
Australia became the first side to win the World Cup for the third
time when it swept aside its opponents in the final, India, by 125
runs at The Wanderers, Johannesburg on 23 March 2003.
That match will rightly be remembered in large measure for the
magnificent innings of captain Ricky Ponting, who set up the win
with a brilliant, unbeaten 140 that helped his side to 2-359, a new
record total for Australia in one-day international cricket.
However, the final was just the last act of a remarkable effort by
the whole squad as it went unbeaten throughout the whole
tournament, a feat not achieved since the West Indies did it in
1979 when it played just five matches (one of which was washed
out) to lift the Cup. Australia’s 11 successive wins, together with
six more victories that finished the VB Series, gave it a new world
record of 17 straight victories, a mark the players would extend to
21 in the Caribbean.
That statistic alone reveals Australia’s consistent excellence,
but what it does not show is that the World Cup triumph was
achieved despite a series of problems that may well have
unhinged lesser sides.
After losing promising young all-rounder Shane Watson to a back
injury before the tour party even left for South Africa, the squad
then had to cope with the loss of star leg-spinner Shane Warne,
Australia’s leading one-day wicket-taker, on the eve of its first
match against Pakistan.
Warne had tested positive for a banned substance during the
VB Series and returned home to address the situation. He was
eventually banned from all cricket for 12 months.
Despite those issues, and continued speculation about whether
Australia would play in Zimbabwe, Ponting’s men got off to a
flying start only to lose another key member of the attack, Jason
Gillespie, to a heel injury after four matches.
Amazingly, however, Australia barely missed a beat throughout
the tournament and whenever the side was threatened someone
emerged to play a key role that saw it home.
79
Two players who emerged to play major parts in the side’s
success were the Queensland duo of Andrew Symonds and
Andrew Bichel. Symonds’ selection in the final squad appeared
questionable after years of underachievement but, when it
mattered most, he finally came of age with 326 runs, a handy mix
of spin and seam, and some brilliant fielding. Symonds played
two crucial innings that helped shape the side’s progress: an
unbeaten 143 in the opening match against Pakistan in
Johannesburg to lead a recovery from 4-86 to 8-310, and then 91
not out in testing conditions in the semi-final against Sri Lanka in
Port Elizabeth.
Bichel began the tournament as a fringe player, but Gillespie’s
injury handed him his chance and he took it so spectacularly that
by the end of the tournament his name was on most
commentators’ lips as a key figure in Australia’s success. He took
16 wickets, including 7-20 against England in Port Elizabeth, the
second best World Cup figures of all time, and although he batted
only three times each contribution he made was vital. His first, an
unbeaten 34, helped haul Australia back from 8-135 to beat
England’s 8-204. His second was 64, a maiden one-day fifty, that
helped his side recover from 7-84 against New Zealand. Thirdly
his unbeaten 19 against Sri Lanka helped Symonds add a
priceless 37 for the eighth wicket in the semi-final. Bichel even
excelled in the field with his brilliant pick-up and throw to run out
Aravinda de Silva in that semi-final, the moment when Australia
really sealed victory.
Bichel and Symonds may have been the most visible rising stars
by the end of the tournament, but there were plenty of other
established stars for Australia. Chief among them was Brett Lee,
who continued his spectacular form from the second half of the
VB Series by claiming 22 wickets in the tournament, a mark
beaten only by Sri Lanka’s Chaminda Vaas. Lee claimed
Australia’s first hat-trick in World Cup history, against Kenya.
He devastated New Zealand with 5-42 and his opening spell in
the semi-final against Sri Lanka was a key factor in allowing
Australia to defend a modest total with genuine comfort.
I nternational Cricket Council Cricket World Cup in Southern Africa, 2003