Australia’s party over, hangover begins, says Holding

LONDON - Former West Indies fast bowler Michael Holding said that Australia’s party as the top team is over and what the former No.1 are experiencing is a “hangover”.

Australia has fallen from the No.1 Test team to No.5 and things are looking far from better. The Baggy Greens Wednesday lost the Ashes urn on the home soil for the first time in 24 years, triggering cries of a shake-up in the team from the disappointed fans.

Holding said Australia lost a lot of good players in their late-20s who could not find a place in the team because of some exceptional players in their thirties.

“There is almost a lost generation of Australian players in their late twenties - players who should have been learning their trade during the 2006-07 Ashes, but couldn’t find a spot because there were so many exceptional thirtysomethings in the team,” Holding wrote in his column in the Telegraph.

“I’m not saying Australia should have dropped Matthew Hayden when he went past 30, just as I’m not saying we should have dropped Gordon Greenidge two decades ago.”

“These people were world-class batsmen, and you have to enjoy your success while it lasts. But sometimes there can be a hangover after a party. Australia are experiencing one now.”

Equating Australia’s slide to the weakening of the West Indian aura in the 1980s, Holding said there comes a time when other teams stop being in awe.

“The explanation is partly psychological. There comes a tipping point when your opponents realise that you are human after all, and suddenly they stand a foot taller when they walk on to the field against you,” Holding wrote in his column in Daily Telegraph.

“The West Indies heyday extended from the late 1970s until the end of the 1980s. It was then that our aura began to weaken, subtly at first. In 1995, the whole West Indian edifice came down with a bang. The Australians dislodged our crown with a 2-1 series win on our own turf.”