We still have a good opening batsman, a good middle order, 3 good quicks (2 of them are injured), 5-6 promising quicks, 4-5 promising spinners, a good wicketkeeper with a talented understudy.

We just need our best players fit and some young talent to step up and fill the gaps which I am sure they will do with oppurtunity.

SA has built their bowling attack from young guys over 2-3 years. Give Siddle/Hauritz/Krezja/Hilfenhaus etc time and they will be good players.

Not the end of the world unless we hand back the poms the ashes again, then it is the end of the world for us!

We still have class acts such as Ponting, Haddin, Johnson, Hussey and Clarke.

Australia have been the top team for many many years. They are in a small rebuilding stage. never fear they will be back to the top of the test rankings soon if they lose the final test in sydney. Australia are still top not only in test but also in one dayers and l expect them to stay there for a long time yet. Aus will be strong again soon. they just are that kind of team.

looks like the end in cricket world , let us see~

yes ! its not end of them. its a start of new beginning.. they have to find talent to get back on track

l think this is beginning of an end of great era.

First Ponting is a very good batsman & a very ordinary captain. Widout his champion players he cud not do much.

Time for Hayden to depart & Phil must be given a chance ..
Phil & Katich might come gud opening pair.

Middle order is quite gud wid Huss Clarke Ponting
Symonds must make way for Watson.

Bowling is the main r of concern.

After Warne no one filled his shoes.
Hauritz is never a spinner whom u wud turn to if u need wickets/wanna make things happen .. which is crucial in TEST.

SPIN in a HUGE concern. Whtever happened to Beau Casson.?

Fast Bowling ~ Forget Lee even then we got Mitch seems a potential leader & Siddle might come good. Whtever happened to Nathan Bracken?

All is not lost but theere the certainly huge concerns.

It not the end of the world

It is the end of domination as number one.

Ponting is gutless , lacks vision and insight.
He is putting friends before country ( ex - Hayden)

Certainly it is not the end of the world for Australian cricket team. But if it is not dealt with vision & shrewdness by CA, this could be the beginning of the end. If u analyse the past, Australia had a very good team, & the Australians revelled in that fact; & the management did not think what after McGrath, Warne, Hayden, Ponting etc. which shows their shortsightedness. If they had thought that everything must come to an end, they would have had players ready to replace the departing legends. But that did not happen.

And now there r youngsters, but how long will they take to perform on a consistent basisd? But for Australia to dominate world cricket like they did once, lot needs to be done. 'Good' & 'promising' players should mature into 'mentally tough' & 'consistent' players

The frustrating thing with all of this is that the selectors have known for some time what was going to happen but have done nothing. We r now getting towards the same position we were in when the likes of Chappell, Lillee & Marsh all retired. The selectors had a brilliant chance to blood some new batsmen. It is a dead rubber so the pressure would not be on the new guys. What do our selectors do? Carry on with the usual suspects. They include an all rounder for whatever reason. We never had one under Taylor Waugh or Ponting so far so why do we need one now.

Watson bowled well in India but batting was not up to scratch & Symonds' batting has been woeful, nearly as bad as Hayden & his bowling has never really been effective.

They should pick 6 batsmen, keeper & four bowlers.

Cool Dude summed up a lot of it.

But let is face it . McGrath, Warne, Gilchrist almost impossible to replace. Haddin (my old club mate - shite it is good to see an old Uni boy doing good!!) . he is done brilliantly & may become the second best keeper batsman in Australia is history. But where do we find another Warne.

Lee has always relied purely on pace & with a virus & then a broken foot he ai not got the smarts to be another McGrath. Hilfenhaus is my hope there. Clark is good but he replaces Gillespie satisfactorily, he wo not replace McGrath.

There r stacks of great batsmen waiting but l only see two or three potential bowlers. And that is the problem - 394 & 254 (or whatever it was) should go a lot closer to winning a test than that.

Still the other thing. South Africa have stamped themselves as the best in the world. Duminy is the best debut batsman I've seen since Tendulkar & Lara. l reckon he may end up better than either of them - can u pick a flaw yet? l can not

lmao at the pisser, what a spank! Are you Peter Roebuck?
Australia will be back and Ponting should forget the wankers who are jumping on his back.

Before the end of the world, Australia would come to top position quite a few times. But, the question is whether would it be during our life time.

*Yawns* Australia is wet dream is over. Get a life loser.