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Australia CricketThis isn’t all down to the dominance of a handful of players, as retirements are usually followed by the introduction of yet another world class player from the waiting ranks. The professionalism of current Australia cricket set up was catalysed by embarrassing defeats to England in the 1980s, including loss of the Ashes to the old enemy. The resulting restructuring of their coaching system, team and ethos by Allan Border, their captain in the early 1990s, laid the foundations for their current world domination. If you're passionate about supporting the world champions, you can Australia and England are the oldest test match teams in the world, having played the first test match at Melbourne cricket ground in 1877. The scene was set for future confrontations between the two sides in 1882, when Australia inflicted England’s first home Test defeat. 
After this game, the Sporting Life published a mock obituary for English cricket, announcing that “the body was cremated and the Ashes taken to Australia”. Since then, England and Australia have played a test series about every two years to decide who holds the Ashes, and this contest has remained one of the most competitive in world sport.The Ashes stakes were raised higher by the notorious “bodyline series” of 1932, when intimidating English fast bowling at the bodies of the Australian batsmen caused serious injuries, an international diplomatic incident, and deepened rivalry between the two sides that still exists today. With this background, the humiliating loss of the Ashes in 1987 was simply not acceptable to the Australian team, their Board, and the Australian media. And so, they restructured their game in a way that set the standard for the rest of the cricketing world. This restructuring included initiation of central contracts for key players, and the creation of the Australia Cricket Academy, which is a finishing school for leading young Australian cricketers. Both features were new to world cricket. They ensure that the contracted players do not suffer burn out by playing too many games, and that there is always a supply of high quality young players competing for places in the national team. Because of this competition, central contracts and a place in the national side became prized, giving even harder edge to the traditionally competitive Australian cricketer. As a result, Australia won the cricket world cup in 1999, 2003 and 2007, and has been top of the ICC test and ODI rankings for several years. Their response to the occasional set backs, like the Ashes defeat in 2005 and loss in the 2007 world cup, has been to come back fighting even harder. As one pundit put it, “beating Australia then claiming top spot is like spitting in Mike Tyson’s eye, then asking him for his seat on the bus!”. Australia cricket has also had a major global influence off the field of play. In 1977, the Australian media tycoon, Kerry Packer, founded World Series Cricket. The television rights for the WSC were secured by Packer’s Channel Nine, leading to an acrimonious confrontation with the global cricket authorities. Leading internationals joined Packer to the cost of their national sides, not least for the superior wages. Although World Series Cricket only lasted two years, the acrimony and confrontation off the field actually produced long lasting benefits for the sport globally. Player fitness improved dramatically, to keep up with the punishing match schedule; floodlit night matches became common in most nations, attracting huge audiences; players became full time professionals, paid largely through television rights; and the ODI became established as a real rival to test cricket. A more subtle benefit was the introduction of batting helmets. Explicit close–up TV coverage by Channel Nine showed the Australian batsman David Hookes having his jaw broken by a fast ball. The horror of this graphic coverage spurred the introduction of batting helmets, and other protective gear followed quickly afterwards.
This great article in Wikipedia gives far more details about the fascinating WSC battles on and off the field. The story is also reminiscent of the modern day controversies surrounding the Indian Cricket League and Indian Premier League. Australia cricket has brought us great players like Don Bradman, Richie Benaud, Dennis Lillee, Allan Border, Steve Waugh, Glen McGrath and Shane Warne. Their legacy to world cricket is immense, not least in modern greats like Adam Gilchrist and Brett Lee who have shown that ruthless, aggressive, professional cricket can still be played by gentlemen within the spirit of the game.
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