Back to the memory lane: How Australia’s alcohol ban turned them into a world conqueror
The ICC World Cup 2019 was nearly a disaster campaign for Australia before a crisis meeting which ended by banning alcohol in the dressing room which ultimately led Australia to win the trophy for the second time.
Back to the memory lane: How Australia’s alcohol ban turned them into a world conqueror
The Kangaroos suffered a consecutive defeat against Pakistan and New Zealand from the beginning of the campaign and they were counting their days at England. There was huge tension about leg-spinner Shane Warne too due to his unhealthy lifestyle.
After suffering some horrific moments at the 1999 World Cup, Australian boss Geoff Marsh and their skipper Steve Waugh was thinking about what to do in order to keep up the pace. Finally, they made the decisions of lifting alcohol and curfew, which drastically improved the team’s performance in the later stage.
But, the decision didn’t go well for others and many of the first team members were against it.
Among the rebels of this decision, there was wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist too. Many of them were like to train harder at the time training session and liked to enjoy themselves with booze at night.
We always liked to train hard and enjoy ourselves a bit at night with booze. That’s how I played.
The former Australian opener insisted.
As team members didn’t support the decision and Kangaroos performance in the field didn’t work out it was the time somebody should stand up to remind themselves about their job.
That’s the time senior member Tom Moody came in and called an emergency meeting with Marsh to point out the problem.
Moody was more than a teammate. He guided us always in the right way, tried to motivate us and helped us to get back our best. He was like a coach on the team.
Gilchrist explained.
Australia immediately came back at winning ways by hammering Bangladesh by seven wickets in its next match.
After that, Australia didn’t lose a single game and made a draw against South Africa in the semi-final but ultimately get through due to their face to face advantage at super six.
It was a great decision which helped us to find back the mojo.
Former cricketer Adam Dale told.
Steve Waugh considered as the greatest captain ever for Australia and he is also one of the best batsmen of Australia. Ricky Ponting learned many things from him and became another pioneer in cricket captaincy after Steve Waugh’s retirement.