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The Aussie 'It' Factor

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Posted: Thursday June 17, 1999 05:51 PM

Australia's cricket team, the German national football squad, Manchester United, three separate entities with one thing in common -- they all have a habit of coming through in the clutch.

Australia's incredible last minute victory three balls from the end of its Cricket World Cup semifinal with South Africa may have been greeted with disbelief, but it's really par for the course for those with that uncanny ability to come out of the mire smelling of roses.

When Lance Klusener powered the South Africans within one run of their dream spot in the World Cup final, there were doubtless many around the globe who had already begun writing their headlines, with South Africa as the lead. And what a great story it would have been, with the former sporting exiles having emerged from the isolation of the apartheid era to add a place in cricket's World Cup final, to the Rugby World Cup and Soccer's African Cup of Nations they'd already won. One error of judgement from Klusener's opposite number, Allan Donald however, and the dream was over. The resultant run out handed the Aussies South Africa's place in the final on a plate.

In some ways though it wasn't that surprising. Like Germany and United, Australia seems blessed a Houdini-like ability to get out of tight spots. Steve Waugh's winning runs with two balls to spare against South Africa in its last Super Six match, Germany's penalty shoot-out victories against England in the 1990 soccer World Cup semis and final-four of Euro '96, Manchester United's recent victory over Bayern Munich that clinched the European Champions League title each carrying with it the drama of inevitability.

So what gives teams like that this overdose of serendipity? Is it determination? Is it skill? Is it just sheer arrogance that refuses to countenance defeat? All of the above, plus one other ingredient - that indefinable "it" quality. Call it luck, call it fate, call it whatever you will, but, as South Africa found to their cost, when you've got it, it's very hard for anyone else to take it away.

 

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