When the Australian captain Michael Clarke lifted the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup trophy and took the retirement from the limited-overs cricket, it was sure that he didn’t feel that the Australian cricket will come in a big jeopardy.

The five-time World Cup winning champion Australia is struggling in the ODI cricket since early 2017. While they won only 5 games in 2017 out of the 13 ODIs (lost in 8 games), they have won only once out of their 10 ODIs in this calendar year (lost in 9 games). The 2015 CWC winner failed to cross the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy group stages.

After the recently concluded five-match ODI series against the hosts England, where Australia was whitewashed by losing the series with a 5-0 margin, the Australian cricket team has slipped down to the no.6 position in the ICC ODI rankings – lowest in the last 34 years.

While the Australian cricket team’s ODI performances are declining continuously, specially since the beginning of 2017, we are talking here about the important reasons for these consistent poor performances.

Recent ball-tampering controversy on senior cricketers

The ball-tampering controversy hit the Australian cricket hugely. It happened in last March during the Cape Town Test which forced the Australian cricket to lose their two key cricketers Steven Smith and David Warner for one year. The country doesn’t only lose their crucial dependable batsmen, it also loses their two crucial leaders who are always ready to lead the nation from the front in any formats.

Moreover, the head coach Darren Lehmann stepped down from his role after that ball-tampering controversy reached in the high level while the long-time CEO of Cricket Australia (CA) James Sutherland recently retired from his post. It shows how that controversy hit their total cricketing system as the world cricket has raised a big question on their never-defeating like culture.

The moral of the team has been heavily affected by that unsportsmanlike behaviour and it needs enough time to heal.