Credit: ICC
Ever wondered what constitutes the Australian cricket's team's victory song? And what is it all about? Well, here's some food for thought! A call for motivation, a reminder to get together to strive for glory, thus a call for action or in other words, a joint purpose to achieve the team's goal- and there are many other ways, truly speaking, in which a simpleton could describe the Australian cricket's team's victory song. Modern reports seem to suggest that more often than not, the Australian cricket team gets together to sing and celebrate its victory by singing what is called a victory song. This leads to a broader question- when does the team celebrate the victory song by singing it together? For starters, it is widely reported that the cricket team of Australia comes together for this particular song by way singing it in what's commonly described as a raucous chant.
But having said that, just what might be some of the lyrics of the Australian cricket team's victory song?
Under the Southern Cross I stand, A sprig of wattle in my hand,
A native of my native land, Australia, you f*****g beauty
Having said the above, the lyrics from the official Australian cricket team's victory song are actually inspired from a separate piece of literature that has been credited to a noted Australian writer and Bush poet by the name of Henry Lawson.
Hailing from New South Wales region of the giant continent, Lawson, born in the year 1867, is credited with a poem that he happened to have written back in the year 1887, which in latter years inspired a cricketer to adopt the same into Australian cricket team's victory song.
Notably, the above verses or lyrics are part of a poem, which is titled, "Flag of the Southern Cross."
Post the conception of the poem, even as the sport was played in only limited parts of the globe, predominantly England, the person who actually rose forward to adapt the lyrics from the poem and lend his own touch and words to it- has been a decorated former member of the Australian men's cricket team.
And that gentleman is none other than Rod Marsh, a wicketkeeping batting great of his time who, from 96 Test matches for Australia, scored north of 3,600 runs and struck 3 hundreds and 16 fifties.
Marsh was inspired from that particular poem written by Mr. Lawson.
Marsh, undoubtedly, is also credited with 343 Test match catches and would represent his proud country in over 90 international one-day contests.
What more does one know about the Australian cricket team's victory song?
It has been widely reported that during his time as an active member of the Australia team, Rod Marsh would play the part of leading the charge of singing this song to his team. Post his retirement, it has been documented, that the said duties were passed on to a real champion cricketer and a timeles legend of the game: Allan Border.
He was and still is widely respected as the "OG AB" (a famous nickname that has been used to describe even the heroic Abraham Benjamin De Villiers).
That being told, who are the other Australian cricketers who have been known to sing it?
It's said that some of the other known players of the Australian cricket team, key members of the sides belonging to the past, have happened to share the same singing duties. And these are big names of the game, such as- David Boon, a widely-known Australian batting great, Ian Healy (iconic keeping-batter), Ricky Ponting (legendary former captain), Justin Langer (widely known former opener and former coach), then Michael Hussey (celebrated worldover as "Mr Cricket"), and Nathan Lyon (popular in world cricket as one of the game's finest-ever spinners).
