The retribution for hubris is always terrifyingly swift. This probably seems like a motto printed on a card by the coach of the Australia cricket team, John Buchanan, to be carried in the wallets of the cricketers he has taken to so much success over so many years. But, in fact, it is a lesson he should have learnt himself.

Shortly after Australia’s thunderous 5-0 victory over England in the Ashes series, and shortly before his side embarked once again on the weary road of one-day matches — a trail that was supposed to lead unerringly to Australia’s victory in the World Cup in two months’ time — he said that he longed to find someone, anyone, capable of giving Australia a game at one-day cricket.

Well, he has certainly had his wish. Among those nations who fancy giving Australia a game we can now include Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. Australia were given a game by England in the recent one-day series, with the result that England won the final of the Commonwealth Bank Series. Any suggestion that this was a blip has been contradicted by New Zealand, who in successive matches have beaten Australia by ten wickets and successfully chased a total of 336. These are two desperate results. They do not indicate a side that was merely outplayed: rather, they seem to imply a side in moral crisis.

The luck has deserted Australia along with the confidence and sureness of touch. It always does when a side starts to lose. One crucial injury has followed another: that’s the way things happen with losers. When the force is with you, an injury seems to become a positive advantage, forcing a new and brilliant player into the front line. Australian are at present a team deserted by the force.

This is a terribly sad thing to have to write, but all the same, I expect that most English people will be able to take it in stride. I must admit that I felt sorry for Australia when I heard the news, but I think I can say that I am over it now.

No champion becomes champion without suffering. There is no easy route. The journey to the top is always accomplished by way of suffering and sacrifice. But once you get to be champion, everything changes.

Australia have maintained their position as global champions of cricket by means of tough-minded, remorse-free bullying. No squealing here: they used every weapon they had and had every right to do so. That’s sport for you. Sport is not supposed to be nice.

But don’t expect the rest of us to be sad when the bully gets his comeuppance. Excellence always has a kind of beauty about it; authority may be admirable but it is seldom very lovable.

So when the giant falls, it is necessary for the midgets to jump up and down on the body. This is a right and proper process, even if it is demeaning to the fallen champion and to the jumping gloaters.

This cricketing dynasty has been the most glorious thing seen in cricket: more glorious even than the stand-up-for-your-rights West Indies side of the 1980s. They have shown that brilliant individuals, inspirational leadership and an unforgiving culture of excellence creates victory after victory after victory.

But like all dynasties, like all empires, it is not for ever. Australia made a noble attempt to create a 1,000-year cricketing reich. If they fell short, the gloaters should still guard their tongues. First because beaten sides can sometimes relearn the art of winning (ask England); and, secondly, because if any England side manages to reproduce the record of the Australia side over the previous decade and a half, we would all have a better right to speak about cricketing greatness.

Is this a terminal decline for Australia? Or is it merely a brief moment of regrouping while Australia wait for the next Shane Warne, the next Steve Waugh, the next Glenn McGrath? Who can tell? The one certainty is that the great Australia cricket dynasty reached some kind of punctuation point at the end of the Ashes series, and right now it looks more like a full stop than a comma.

In every empire’s beginning you find the seeds of its decline and fall. And in sport this process invariably takes place at breakneck speed. The Australian hegemony has lasted far longer than anyone had a right to expect, a tribute to the culture and to the coincidence of several rarely talented and rarely enduring individuals all being around at the same time.

Where Australia go from here is anyone’s guess; how long the rebuilding of a new empire will take is beyond computation. We have been privileged to suffer the austerities of the old empire at its height, we can be permitted, I think, a moment to savour its decline. Better if we do so without gloating too loudly, but let us at least rejoice in the fact that Australia have somehow found two sides who are capable of giving them a game.

Highest chases

438-9 (49.5 overs) South Africa v Australia 2005-06

337-5 (48.4 overs) New Zealand v Australia 2006-07

332-8 (49 overs) New Zealand v Australia 2005-06

330-7 (49.1 overs) Australia v South Africa 2001-02

326-8 (49.3 overs) India v England 2002