Chappell brothers

The Australian cricket team played and won their first Test match in 1877 (the rivalry with England took form since then) and the Laureus World Sports Awards 2002 (World Team of the Year) for their test match records rendered them to be the strongest of all cricket teams. Till March 2007, the Australian cricket team played 687 Test matches and won 320 of them; this made them lead the ICC Test Championship table since January 2001. The award of being the first-ranked international one-day cricket team also goes to them as much as the four Cricket World Cups, the last one being the one this year. The team has also been the consecutive winners of 29 World Cup matches; however, from February 19, 2007 to April 6, 2007, the period spelt down phase for them.

Former glories of the Australian cricket team comprise the victory against the (in)famous Bodyline series - the tactics of English captain Douglas Jardine for controlling Don Bradman. The English bowling had been devastated completely by Sir Don during the 1930s; Jardine had used 6 consecutive bouncers reaching head height and over the leg stump and half a dozen fielders around. The success continued till the 1980s - Richie Benaud, the Chappell brothers, Dennis Lillee and Rodney Marsh were the ones on whom the team rested. It was relatively a mediocre period until Allan Border took the charge for captaincy. Arguably, it is in the 1990s that the modern era has its roots in; staying unbeaten in all Ashes series except in 2005 and four World Cups can surely be credited to Border, the successive captains and the several brilliant key players - Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, Steve Waugh, and Ricky Ponting being four among them. Glenn McGrath, however, had announced earlier his pre-planned retirement from international cricket after the 2007 Cricket World Cup and he played it well. The 2007 Cricket World Cup was all about Aussie domination; 42 wickets and 11 matches is after all a good ratio if compared to the 104 they claimed out of their opponents. Glenn McGrath became the Man of the Series.