One of these teams isn’t bottom of the ladder

Photo © 2012 AFP/AAP/Aamir Qureshi

Brace yourself for some bad news, folks. After Wednesday’s rout by Pakistan, Australia’s Twenty20 cricket team faces the ignominy of falling to 10th in the official rankings - above only Zimbabwe.

And the team that would rise to 9th? Ireland, a country that has not even been granted official Test status by the International Cricket Council.

Even worse, Ireland is Australia’s first opponent in the World Twenty20 championship on Wednesday week. If we lose that one, it could be time for a whole new Ashes legend. And not the good kind.

Form like that shown on Wednesday, when Australia was bowled out for 89, doesn’t bode well for the championship.

Australia currently ranks 3rd in tests and 4th in one-day internationals, but on the Twenty20 ladder they’ve dropped beneath not just New Zealand – oh the humanity - but Bangladesh, a team largely noted for being newer to the game than Zimbabwe.

Even cricketing minnows like Scotland, Netherlands and Afghanistan have better records for 2012 than Australia – though they’ve played insufficient international matches to qualify for the official ICC rankings.

Australia’s woeful performance in the newest and shortest form of the game doesn’t tally with the enormous sums many of the players have been paid for playing in the Indian Premier League.

The 15-man World Twenty20 squad contains 13 IPL players who fetched more than $US6.4 million in fees at the 2011-12 auctions.

Maybe IPL managers would be getting better value by snapping up some cheap Irishmen.

But here at The Project, we believe the Aussies can turn this around tonight. So let’s all stand together and sing the official Australian team song:

Under the Southern Cross I Stand
A sprig of wattle in my hand,
A native of my native land,
Australia you bloody beauty.

Yes, those are the real words.

Not really sure what was wrong with C’mon Aussie C’mon.

Any ideas of how to lift Australia's Twenty20 stocks? Have your say below.