Michael Clarke in action. Boo! says the UK
UK Telegraph writer Rob Bagchi has written a piece on why everyone should want Australia to lose World Cup. We've republished in it full.
When Tim Southee or Mitchell Starc bowls the first ball of the 11th cricket World Cup final at the MCG on Sunday, it will be 4.30am in a United Kingdom opening its raddled eyes to greet the first dawn of British Summer Time.
It will still be 3.30am in old money, though - the advanced hour an illusion, a wholly worthless deposit in the sleep bank, so those who have been utterly enthralled by this World Cup, the best since 1999 or arguably 1996, who rise to watch or listen to it will be a happy few united by a common desire - the Australians amongst us apart - to see New Zealand give their co-hosts a shoeing.
Is that because we dislike Australia so much or because we support New Zealand? There does seem to be a more spiteful edge to the traditional England-Australia rivalry since the last Ashes series centred particularly around the distaste felt for the type of on-field verbal abuse on microphone at the Gabba when the captain Michael Clarke told James Anderson to "get ready for a broken ------- arm".
It was Clarke's misfortune to be caught but this is something that has been going on for years, perpetrated by most international teams and should have been stamped out decades ago by umpires applying the laws.
Instead we have allowed double standards to prevail, as if the degraded term banter can be conjugated thus: "I practise banter; you are a master of mental disintegration; he is an uncouth sledger." Hence Australia's aggressive swagger and breezily foul mouths are used as a stick with which to beat them and contrasts are made with New Zealand's stated forswearing of "verbals".
Yet, although David Warner can be as unremittingly irritating in the field as he is sensationally engaging to watch while batting, sledging is no tenable reason for England supporters who tolerate the churlish behaviour of Anderson and Stuart Broad to dislike Australia.
A straw man, even if it is sporting a Mitchell Johnson moustache, is still a straw man. It is less hypocritical to want them to lose because of the eternal rivalry than be blind to their remarkable qualities as cricketers, however much that whooping when they take a wicket carries with it echoes of an Athenian battle cry.
In any case there are far more positive reasons to favour New Zealand to win than there are negative ones for wanting Australia to lose. First among them is novelty - there has been no new winner since Sri Lanka in 1996, since when Australia have added their second, third and fourth victories and India have finally managed to double up.
The New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum is an enormously impressive figure whose bold leadership and commitment to a wicket-taking rather than a containment strategy gives us the best chance of a new world champion team. English caution and anxiety that have ruined six successive World Cup campaigns is nowhere to be seen. McCullum's teams focus principally on their strengths and the opposition's weaknesses not the other way round. Also, as a batsman his hand speed, innovation, quick feet and outrageous power make his innings a compelling spectacle.
He is a master of positive PR, too, not just the anti-sledging stance but the rallying of his countrymen behind him, writing a note for each employer before the semi-final against South Africa asking them to excuse their employees from duty for the day. "We've got a seat with your name on it," he wrote. "And a flag that won't wave itself."
Daniel Vettori's return to the colours from retirement for his fourth World Cup is another, more romantic reason to get behind New Zealand. For years he carried the side as bowler, latterly dogged batsman and frustratingly defensive captain. The cares of office and a chronic back complaint turned him from vibrant teenager to shuffling and intense veteran before he gave the ODI game away after the semi-final defeat by Sri Lanka in Colombo at the last tournament but now his mirth has been restored by a genuine last shot at glory. And who could begrudge him that after 291 ODIs and three losing semi-finals in 1999, 2007 and 2011?
For those with longer memories who believe that revenge is a dish best served cold, minds will turn back 34 years to a final played in the World Series Cup at the MCG in 1981. With the series level at 1-1 and New Zealand needing a six off the last ball to tie the match, Australia's captain, Greg Chappell, instructed his younger brother Trevor to bowl an underarm delivery to Brian McKechnie to prevent him hitting a six.
The former Australia all-rounder Keith Miller, the man who forever epitomises the best of his country's cricketers' life-affirming nonchalance, said the day after: "Yesterday one-day cricket died and Greg Chappell should be buried with it." Robert Muldoon, the New Zealand prime minister, went further still: "It was an act of true cowardice and I consider it appropriate that the Australian team was wearing yellow."
On Sunday they will still be wearing yellow - or "Australian gold, my friend and don't you forget it" as fans of the 12th Man would put it - and will have most of the global cricket loving public against them. We want them to do it for the terminally ill Martin Crowe who came so close in 1992 and to reward innovation, novelty, audacious captaincy, a rather grizzled comeback kid and for underdogs to have their day.
If they manage to win their first World Cup at the 11th time of asking, a nation of 4.5 million will add it to the Rugby World Cup to become holders of two of the three team sport world championships we truly care about. Hang on a minute. That would show us up probably just as much as it would bother Australia. Er ... C'mon Aussie, c'mon?!