TRACY BOWDEN: It took 22 years, but last week the Indian cricket team finally achieved one of its most important breakthroughs, beating Australia in a Test on Australian soil.
Now the visitors enter the Melbourne Boxing Day Test needing just one more win to clinch the series.
Commentators are engaged in endless speculation about whether this is the end of Australia's decade-long dominance of world cricket.
Mary Gearin reports.
SWAMI ARMY CHEERLEADER: Gimme an 'I'!
SWAMI ARMY: 'I'!
SWAMI ARMY CHEERLEADER: Gimme an 'N'!
SWAMI ARMY: 'N'!
SWAMI ARMY CHEERLEADER: Gimme a 'D'!
SWAMI ARMY: 'D'!
SWAMI ARMY CHEERLEADER: Gimme an 'I'!
SWAMI ARMY: 'I'!
SWAMI ARMY CHEERLEADER: Gimme an 'A'!
SWAMI ARMY: 'A'!
SWAMI ARMY CHEERLEADER: What does that spell?
SWAMI ARMY: India!
SWAMI ARMY CHEERLEADER: India!
SWAMI ARMY: India!
MARY GEARIN: And that's a name you'll hear often if the Swami Army gets its Christmas wish for a series win over Australia on Australian soil, virtually unthinkable before its win in the second Test.
SHWETANK BANTHIA, SWAMI ARMY: There is a bit of arrogance that maybe is healthy for the team.
ABHILASH MUDALIAR, SWAMI ARMY: India probably has to perform like Australia consistently over a few years to be genuinely labelled number one.
But if they do win the series, then they've got a claim.
HARSHA BHOGLE, CRICKET COMMENTATOR: Suddenly it was like a twist in a movie that they thought would have a familiar ending and suddenly it provided them with a happy at ending So first surprise and then just elation.
It was huge.
MARY GEARIN: India had stormed the Australian cricketing fortress in Adelaide's second Test and the response was pure glee and cheeky claims to the throne from Sourav Ganguly.
HARSHA BHOGLE: He is captain of India.
He has got to say what he does.
He's got to say that we believe we are the second best team in the world and that we believe that we can someday be the best.
But he since clarified - he said, "Look, I am not a fool."
Australia won 16 Test matches in a row.
They won the World Cup without dropping a game.
We can't become Australia, but we would like to become someday."
MARY GEARIN: But are the kings of cricket dead, dying, or even on the critical list?
STEVE WAUGH, AUSTRALIAN TEST CAPTAIN: That was a great result for India but we're not reading too much into it.
We had a bad day and we're allowed to have bad day occasionally.
MARY GEARIN: Before the first beers hit the players' lips, a wave of post-mortems had begun.
Have the Australians had forgotten how to finish off their prey?
Do their quick run tallies allow too much time for opponents to rally?
Former English captain Mike Gatting even declared the subtle start of a new era.
The end of Australia's dominance.
HARSHA BHOGLE: It staggered me and stunned me, because Australia had the better of the exchanges in Brisbane.
Remember, they came out in the second innings and batted like they are hitting tennis balls in a park and they only had one bad session in Brisbane, where they lost 7/55, I think, at one point and they won the first two days of the Adelaide Test.
So it's been a stumble, not a fall.
MARY GEARIN: To add to the media frenzy, Australia's own coach laid in unwittingly.
John Buchanan's leaked letter to his players accused them of surely the greatest sin - being "un-baggy green".
Their second Test performance was immature, distracted by sponsorship deals.
KERRY O'KEEFE, CRICKET COMMENTATOR: I think a lot of what was contained in the Buchanan letter was close to the mark and whether it was immature batting or irresponsible batting in the second innings in Adelaide then it did really condemn them to defeat.
I just think occasionally there's too much sycophancy amongst the media and players and people close to the team and that somebody really in charge of the team has had the strength of character to say "This was substandard" and I think it's a real plus.
MARY GEARIN: Former Test spinner Kerry O'Keefe is one of many coaches at the backbone of Australian cricket development.
He concedes the Australians took their eyes off the ball - literally and figuratively.
And there's been a cold wind blowing through the side's bowling ranks in the absence of super efficient paceman Glenn McGrath and wicket glutton Shane Warne.
But he says that doesn't hail India's ascension to the throne.
KERRY O'KEEFE: Don't get me wrong, I respect the victory but I don't see it as the start of an era for them.
I think if they were a horse, the jockey was absolutely working overtime at the end to get them over the line.
HARSHA BHOGLE: The might of one generation always devours the next and Australia, I suspect, will go through a transition phase with the bowling, but they still got the best top six in the world and they've got the best two-and-one cricketer in the world.
There are no all-rounders in world cricket, but Adam Gilchrist is the best two-and-one cricketer the world has seen for many, many years.
So I don't see - if I was Australia, I would look at my options.
But I would look upon it as no more than a little stumble.
MARY GEARIN: Popular voice of Indian cricket Harsha Bhogle does believe the Australians' aggressive attitude backfired on them in Adelaide, a key weakness for any team to exploit.
HARSHA BHOGLE: I remember talking to Rahul Dravid once and I said "What was the best way to beat Australia?"
And he said the best way to do it is to, in a sense, play to their arrogance.
Because once they are arrogant they will self-destruct and the only team that can beat Australia today in world cricket is Australia.
MICHAEL PARKINSON: Let's pray to merciful God in his heaven they don't change that style at all.
They have revolutionised the way they played Test cricket - Stephen Waugh and his side has, and they have been praised and supported in that ambition.
Who wants to see a return to the boring five day draw?
Not Stephen Waugh and praised be to God that he doesn't.
MARY GEARIN: On holidays after presenting the Sir Donald Bradman Oration, avid English cricket fan and sports writer Michael Parkinson has monitored the post-loss reaction.
MICHAEL PARKINSON: You keep kind of inventing ways in the Australian media of criticising.
I don't know why.
I wish you could give them to us for a while.
I mean, we'd love to have them - I wish I'd got your problem.
MARY GEARIN: So if Australia's not about to implode, then why the scrutiny?
Kerry O'Keefe agrees it's partly because the team is seen as arrogant, due for a fall.
KERRY O'KEEFE: People talk about cycles and I think lots of former opponents are waiting for the Australian cycle to end and I think that this has been a false dawning for them.
I still think there's batting strength to burn in Australia and with the return of Shane Warne, and if Glenn McGrath can recapture full fitness, then there's enough strength of bowling to maintain number one for quite some time.
MARY GEARIN: As the noise of destruction and construction rang across the MCG today, the world champions today put in a marathon work session in the hot sun.
Perhaps a sign that the first taste of Test defeat on home soil for a decade is about to be spat out again.
HARSHA BHOGLE: I am expecting Australia to come back really strong at Melbourne because they will have overcome their biggest enemy which is their own arrogance.
Because they've never known what it is to lose and to struggle.
Sometimes you can assume that those two words don't exist in the dictionary until, as I said, it knocks on your door and it's there.
MICHAEL PARKINSON: It's going to be a great Test series.
I mean not just the match in Melbourne, but the one in Sydney.
Because there is nothing more formidable than an Australian side that has got its dander up.
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2003/s1015998.htm
Now the visitors enter the Melbourne Boxing Day Test needing just one more win to clinch the series.
Commentators are engaged in endless speculation about whether this is the end of Australia's decade-long dominance of world cricket.
Mary Gearin reports.
SWAMI ARMY CHEERLEADER: Gimme an 'I'!
SWAMI ARMY: 'I'!
SWAMI ARMY CHEERLEADER: Gimme an 'N'!
SWAMI ARMY: 'N'!
SWAMI ARMY CHEERLEADER: Gimme a 'D'!
SWAMI ARMY: 'D'!
SWAMI ARMY CHEERLEADER: Gimme an 'I'!
SWAMI ARMY: 'I'!
SWAMI ARMY CHEERLEADER: Gimme an 'A'!
SWAMI ARMY: 'A'!
SWAMI ARMY CHEERLEADER: What does that spell?
SWAMI ARMY: India!
SWAMI ARMY CHEERLEADER: India!
SWAMI ARMY: India!
MARY GEARIN: And that's a name you'll hear often if the Swami Army gets its Christmas wish for a series win over Australia on Australian soil, virtually unthinkable before its win in the second Test.
SHWETANK BANTHIA, SWAMI ARMY: There is a bit of arrogance that maybe is healthy for the team.
ABHILASH MUDALIAR, SWAMI ARMY: India probably has to perform like Australia consistently over a few years to be genuinely labelled number one.
But if they do win the series, then they've got a claim.
HARSHA BHOGLE, CRICKET COMMENTATOR: Suddenly it was like a twist in a movie that they thought would have a familiar ending and suddenly it provided them with a happy at ending So first surprise and then just elation.
It was huge.
MARY GEARIN: India had stormed the Australian cricketing fortress in Adelaide's second Test and the response was pure glee and cheeky claims to the throne from Sourav Ganguly.
HARSHA BHOGLE: He is captain of India.
He has got to say what he does.
He's got to say that we believe we are the second best team in the world and that we believe that we can someday be the best.
But he since clarified - he said, "Look, I am not a fool."
Australia won 16 Test matches in a row.
They won the World Cup without dropping a game.
We can't become Australia, but we would like to become someday."
MARY GEARIN: But are the kings of cricket dead, dying, or even on the critical list?
STEVE WAUGH, AUSTRALIAN TEST CAPTAIN: That was a great result for India but we're not reading too much into it.
We had a bad day and we're allowed to have bad day occasionally.
MARY GEARIN: Before the first beers hit the players' lips, a wave of post-mortems had begun.
Have the Australians had forgotten how to finish off their prey?
Do their quick run tallies allow too much time for opponents to rally?
Former English captain Mike Gatting even declared the subtle start of a new era.
The end of Australia's dominance.
HARSHA BHOGLE: It staggered me and stunned me, because Australia had the better of the exchanges in Brisbane.
Remember, they came out in the second innings and batted like they are hitting tennis balls in a park and they only had one bad session in Brisbane, where they lost 7/55, I think, at one point and they won the first two days of the Adelaide Test.
So it's been a stumble, not a fall.
MARY GEARIN: To add to the media frenzy, Australia's own coach laid in unwittingly.
John Buchanan's leaked letter to his players accused them of surely the greatest sin - being "un-baggy green".
Their second Test performance was immature, distracted by sponsorship deals.
KERRY O'KEEFE, CRICKET COMMENTATOR: I think a lot of what was contained in the Buchanan letter was close to the mark and whether it was immature batting or irresponsible batting in the second innings in Adelaide then it did really condemn them to defeat.
I just think occasionally there's too much sycophancy amongst the media and players and people close to the team and that somebody really in charge of the team has had the strength of character to say "This was substandard" and I think it's a real plus.
MARY GEARIN: Former Test spinner Kerry O'Keefe is one of many coaches at the backbone of Australian cricket development.
He concedes the Australians took their eyes off the ball - literally and figuratively.
And there's been a cold wind blowing through the side's bowling ranks in the absence of super efficient paceman Glenn McGrath and wicket glutton Shane Warne.
But he says that doesn't hail India's ascension to the throne.
KERRY O'KEEFE: Don't get me wrong, I respect the victory but I don't see it as the start of an era for them.
I think if they were a horse, the jockey was absolutely working overtime at the end to get them over the line.
HARSHA BHOGLE: The might of one generation always devours the next and Australia, I suspect, will go through a transition phase with the bowling, but they still got the best top six in the world and they've got the best two-and-one cricketer in the world.
There are no all-rounders in world cricket, but Adam Gilchrist is the best two-and-one cricketer the world has seen for many, many years.
So I don't see - if I was Australia, I would look at my options.
But I would look upon it as no more than a little stumble.
MARY GEARIN: Popular voice of Indian cricket Harsha Bhogle does believe the Australians' aggressive attitude backfired on them in Adelaide, a key weakness for any team to exploit.
HARSHA BHOGLE: I remember talking to Rahul Dravid once and I said "What was the best way to beat Australia?"
And he said the best way to do it is to, in a sense, play to their arrogance.
Because once they are arrogant they will self-destruct and the only team that can beat Australia today in world cricket is Australia.
MICHAEL PARKINSON: Let's pray to merciful God in his heaven they don't change that style at all.
They have revolutionised the way they played Test cricket - Stephen Waugh and his side has, and they have been praised and supported in that ambition.
Who wants to see a return to the boring five day draw?
Not Stephen Waugh and praised be to God that he doesn't.
MARY GEARIN: On holidays after presenting the Sir Donald Bradman Oration, avid English cricket fan and sports writer Michael Parkinson has monitored the post-loss reaction.
MICHAEL PARKINSON: You keep kind of inventing ways in the Australian media of criticising.
I don't know why.
I wish you could give them to us for a while.
I mean, we'd love to have them - I wish I'd got your problem.
MARY GEARIN: So if Australia's not about to implode, then why the scrutiny?
Kerry O'Keefe agrees it's partly because the team is seen as arrogant, due for a fall.
KERRY O'KEEFE: People talk about cycles and I think lots of former opponents are waiting for the Australian cycle to end and I think that this has been a false dawning for them.
I still think there's batting strength to burn in Australia and with the return of Shane Warne, and if Glenn McGrath can recapture full fitness, then there's enough strength of bowling to maintain number one for quite some time.
MARY GEARIN: As the noise of destruction and construction rang across the MCG today, the world champions today put in a marathon work session in the hot sun.
Perhaps a sign that the first taste of Test defeat on home soil for a decade is about to be spat out again.
HARSHA BHOGLE: I am expecting Australia to come back really strong at Melbourne because they will have overcome their biggest enemy which is their own arrogance.
Because they've never known what it is to lose and to struggle.
Sometimes you can assume that those two words don't exist in the dictionary until, as I said, it knocks on your door and it's there.
MICHAEL PARKINSON: It's going to be a great Test series.
I mean not just the match in Melbourne, but the one in Sydney.
Because there is nothing more formidable than an Australian side that has got its dander up.
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2003/s1015998.htm
