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Review by John Polack
When a team has dominated a competition to the extent of winning
back-to-back titles in its preceding years, it generally proceeds to head
in one of two directions. It can either maintain that same high level of
performance or it can fundamentally lose its way as a result of having
worked so arduously to sustain an edge over its competitors for such a
period of time. Strangely though, Western Australia's 1999-2000 first
class season represented a completely atypical case study. Indeed, the
Warriors substantively did neither of the two.
In many ways, it was a season which defied analysis. At its outset, the rigours associated with winning Sheffield Shields in 1997-98 and 1998-99 did appear to be extracting a heavy price. Injuries and a loss of confidence plagued the team in its opening six first class matches and it was not until the middle of January that a first outright victory for the season was forthcoming. Even that three wicket win over South Australia was a little unexpected; it came by means of an unbroken half century stand for the eighth wicket when defeat had shaped as the more likely result. As it had done four years earlier, the burden of captaincy weighed heavily on Damien Martyn through the early part of the season; that he collapsed to the ground during one innings with the bat in Melbourne at the height of his team's ills seemed to suggest that the encumbrance was literal as well as metaphorical. For some time indeed, this season shaped as being one of the unhappiest in recent memory.
But that was all until a remarkable transformation began to take effect midway through the summer, a transformation that was essentially sparked by Justin Langer's return from Test commitments. Almost immediately, the effervescent Langer's elevation to the captaincy provoked a rebirth of the team spirit which had been at the core of the team's recent successes, not to mention a reawakening of a batting line-up that had hitherto been lying dormant. From last position on the table, four successive outright victories took the Warriors to third place by season's end and many commentators around Australia were of the view by that stage that neither Queensland nor Victoria would have wanted them as opponents in the Final.
In keeping with the fact that this was very much a season of two halves, most of the team's best performances with the bat came toward the end of the summer. This was indeed when openers Ryan Campbell and Mike Hussey were at their finest; Campbell feasting upon Queensland's bowlers to register a sparkling personal best of 203 in early March and Hussey finishing just short of his all-time high watermark with 172 against a lame New South Wales. In the process, both players accordingly put some indifferent early touch behind them to amass respectable aggregates of in excess of eight hundred runs for the summer. Langer and Martyn joined in when their international commitments allowed, each recording centuries when the opportunities availed themselves. And, maybe most happily of all, gifted young left hander Simon Katich finally freed himself of the effects of a string of debilitating illnesses to play a number of typically flourishing innings over the concluding stages of proceedings too. Of course, it should be said that there were several mitigating factors to excuse the team's mediocre start, foremost among them long-term injuries to regular captain Tom Moody, middle order player Rob Baker and hard hitting all-rounder Brendon Julian.
The absences of Julian and Moody ensured that the bowling attack also had an unfamiliar complexion through the opening part of the season. Where the batsmen failed, however, the Warriors' reputation for continuing to make life unpleasant for rival batsmen was upheld. Given that he had transferred to the State after several years of frustration in Victoria, no one had really known at the outset what to expect from right arm speedster Brad Williams in his first season in the West. They need not have worried: the result was a very satisfactory one for both Williams and Western Australian cricket. His return of fifty first class wickets was brilliant enough in itself, but naturally that precise lack of expectation rendered his effort all the more distinguished. Williams was a revelation; on a Perth pitch which is far more of a batting paradise these days than its stereotypical reputation as a haven for pacemen implies, his combination of blistering speed and stinging accuracy confounded batsmen on a frequent basis. Around the small matter of a shattered forearm (the legacy of taking the full force of a Brett Lee thunderbolt just above the wrist), veteran Jo Angel also enjoyed another consistent season with twenty-six wickets, while Sean Cary took over from where he left off late last season to claim another twenty-five.
Of course, no mention of Western Australia's 1999-2000 season would be in any sense complete without reference to the team's spectacular triumph in the Mercantile Mutual Cup one-day competition. While many observers continue to be baffled by the 'wisdom' of the new rules ushered in this year to establish which teams would receive the right to host the Semi-Finals and the Final itself (and there remains scepticism as to whether the Warriors deserved to have been handed the home ground advantage for the ultimate match ahead of a team which recorded the same amount of wins and a substantially superior net run rate through the preliminary round), theirs was indeed a great conquest. Again captained heroically in this form of the game by Langer, the Warriors set a cracking early pace - winning each of their first three games comfortably - before building on this early impetus with stirring home victories over South Australia and Queensland in the Semi-Final and Final respectively to clinch their tenth domestic one-day crown. Even though all-rounder Brad Hogg led the way with a number of inspiring individual performances, the Warriors' triumph was essentially a tribute to the overall consistency of their one-day lineup throughout the season. They had seven players who averaged in excess of forty with the bat, and six players chimed in to claim at least six wickets with the ball. Sealed as it was in front of an adoring home crowd, it was another fitting success for a team that clearly remains one of the most powerful in Australian domestic cricket and is likely to continue to hover close to the top in both competitions for some time to come.
Site: Western Australia
Key Player: Brad Williams
Rising Star: Marcus North
Pura Milk Cup: 3rd
Mercantile Mutual Cup: Winner
ACB Cup: 1st (Group A)
Under-19s Championships: 6th
Under-17s Championships: 5th
Statistics:
First-class
Pura Milk Cup
Mercantile Mutual Cup