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On the eve of the last New Zealand vs Australia ODI and before the Aussies climb aboard the Flying Kangaroo for OR Tambo, Bruce Manly has scoured the Aussie media for some snippets of how the boys are feeling about the state of the game.

It shows how hard the Proteas have pushed them off the cliff of superiority and world domination:

** “REMEMBER Australia A? They were the days, weren’t they? Hey … this is just between you and me, OK? Don’t tell anyone and don’t tell the Kiwis but did you hear — our confidence is back? That’s right, the Australian cricket team has regained its confidence after two emphatic … well, sort of emphatic … umm, pretty good wins against New Zealand and will start a $1.40 favourite to win the one-day series in the fifth and deciding game today.That’s a relief, isn’t it? It sure is nice to have confidence again. Of course, a few years ago, sorry a few months ago, we used to eat teams like New Zealand for breakfast and beating them was certainly not a reason for confidence injections — it was expected. Now, despite the fact this series is into its fifth game, is on home dirt and is still alive, we’re telling everyone, with a distinct hint of trepidation, we’re confident.”

** “Ricky Ponting in his newspaper column during the week, called for calm and patience as Australia rebuilds.Ponting wrote: “One-day games and series come and go pretty quickly and while our current results have been disappointing, everybody has to understand there is a long-term plan in place…”

and the journo replies thus:

** “The questions are: since when did we need a long-term plan and where were the long-term plans prior to this summer? Mongrel Punter is fairly certain the plan used to be: we go to the domestic-cricket well, find an in-form player who is about 30 and give him a cap. That’s not good enough any more, now we “need to understand” that we have a plan.Is Punter suggesting our cricket recession has been orchestrated and has nothing to do with the perception that the Australian selectors have been dozing at the wheel for a few years?”

** “Ponting continued: “Even now, we are working towards the 2011 World Cup, blooding players, testing tactics and finding out who performs under pressure.”

the hacks can’t help themselves:

** “Well, yes, when you lose consecutive Test series, a one-day series and you struggle to beat New Zealand, you are under pressure … and what’s all this talk of “blooding players”? For years now, the Australian selectors have been criticised for not blooding players in dead rubbers or against Test minnows such as Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. Indeed, who can forget Langer, Hayden, Ponting, Steve Waugh, Lehmann and Gilchrist lining up to bludgeon Zimbabwe into submission on their way to 735 in 2003? Of course, that was only a few months after we rattled Bangladesh in Darwin with the usual suspects wining by an innings and 132 runs — no talk of long-term plans and blooding players back then. Suddenly, with things rock-bottom, we are “blooding” players or — as was the case with Dave Warner — feeding them to the wolves (let’s just hope they treat him better than poor old Jason Krejza).”

and the last word:

** “Pardon me for not rejoicing in our new-found confidence, but it all sounds a bit like the selectors are making it up on the run and that $2.95 on the Black Caps today seems mighty tempting. One thing is sure; Michael Hussey’s confidence is back, so the $6 on him making the most runs for Australia is worth a look.”

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