Longing to hate Australia again

John Stern writes in the Wisden Cricketer that there seems to be a 'certain generic, faceless, smugness about the current lot' of Australians.

It frustrates me how easily I can feel sorry for opponents of my team. It happens less in football because of the shorter time-span (and, er, because I support West Ham) but whenever England enjoy sustained periods of cricket dominance I find that I start to sympathise with the opposition. I don’t want them to win, I just start feeling sorry for them which, I know, is both patronising and disloyal.