Weak-kneed ICC did us in: Aussie media

Perth: Struggling to digest the defeat India rammed down the hosts' throat in the third Test, a section of the Australian media on Sunday reacted with dented pride and hurt ego as it sought to pick holes in the visitors' emphatic win.

Stung after Anil Kumble and his comrades-in-arms halted the Australian juggernaut, denying them a record 17th straight Test win, the media here cried foul, blaming the defeat to India's financial clout and the game's "weak-kneed" governing body.

"India's stunning performance in the third Test at the WACA should be dedicated to a lot more than the 11 players out on the field," a whining report in the Courier Mail said.

"They should share their pay cheques with their bullying officials back home, the weak-kneed administrators at the International Cricket Council and certain members of the media who have taken every opportunity to put the knife into the Aussies since this series began," Mike Colman wrote in the daily.

The barrage of criticism after the acrimonious Sydney Test had forced Ricky Ponting and his teammates to discard their ruthlessness and the rather civilised approach to the game never really worked for them, he said.

"Remember that scene in one of the Rocky movies where Rocky's trainer tells him he's no longer feared by his opponents?

'Kid,' he says, 'the worst thing that could happen to a fighter happened to you. You got civilised.'"

"In the space of a week the Australians got civilised. So instead of a confident, arrogant, winning team, we get a nice, civilised one. Maybe a losing one," it rued.

"The way the ICC backed down to financial clout of the Indian heavies, the way the Australian authorities panicked over the effect of bad publicity on sponsorship dollars and success of the anti-Ponting campaign stirred up by a former England B captain who now calls Australia home, all combined to back the team into a corner," the Courier Mail said.

The Daily Telegraph, however, struck a more balanced note as it doffed its hat at the Indians, while ruing the end of Australia's golden run. It said the Perth defeat was a hint that Australia couldn't take its pole position for granted.

"Welcome to the future, Australian cricket fans. Welcome to a world where your team will remain among the best sides in the world but will have to work like drover's dogs to subdue their closest rivals, particularly away from home," it said.

"We have seen the end of a golden era and will have to get used to the occasional silver and bronze medal against teams ready to answer our best sledges.

"The fortress was attacked in Sydney and the barricades finally fell in Perth," the report read.

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