28 January,2009 01:30 PM IST | | PTI
Former Australian pacer Rodney Hogg has lambasted Ricky Ponting's men for "strutting around like peacocks" and "living in denial" about their fall from top of the pedestal in all forms of cricket.
"They have been pulverised. I don't think they realise where they are at and how badly they have been going. They have been strutting around like peacocks thinking they are the best in the world, but they've been living in denial," Hogg was quoted as saying by The Courier Mail.
"The reality is they are nowhere near No 1 in the world - they are probably about No 4. You could tell that when they went to the sub-continent last year and weren't even a patch on the Indian side," he added, referring to the 2-0 Test series loss that Australia suffered in India.
Hogg said Aussies need to accept that they are no longer the dominant side they once were and start rebuilding.
"Until they realise how far they have fallen - and take stock of everything that has happened - there are going to continue to be problems," he explained.
"A lot of their dismissals this summer have been really soft and they have to take a long, hard look at themselves," he said.
Australia, for the first time since 1993, lost both a Test and ODI series at home when South Africa outplayed them this summer. The Aussies are in danger of losing their top spot in ICC ODI rankings if they are defeated in the fifth and final one-dayer of the already lost five-match series against the Proteas.
