By Tom Fordyce

Australia celebrate setting their one-day record

Roy Castle might have been right when he claimed you need dedication to be a record-breaker.

But you also need nerves of steel and an almost inhuman ability to blank out the importance of what you are about to do.

On Sunday, the West Indies finally ended Australia's record-breaking run of 21 one-day international wins in a row.

The frustration on the Aussie players' faces as the game slipped away from them was written large for all to see - particularly as they played some of their worst cricket in months to lose.

It was reminiscent of the moment in September last year, when the Oakland Athletics beat the Kansas City Royals 12-11 to set an American League baseball record of 20 straight wins.

Victory took the A's past the mark set by the 1906 Chicago White Sox and the 1947 New York Yankees, who won 19 games in a row.

But it so nearly went wrong. The A's also set an unwanted record when they became first the Major League team in 26 years to squander an 11-run lead.

Would that have happened if the team hadn't been so conscious that they were on the verge of history?

Probably not. But there comes a time when records gather their own momentum and take on a somewhat unjustified importance.

You'd get crucified in Baltimore for saying it, but what did Cal Ripken's record for 2,632 consecutive games played really mean?

Loyalty to the Orioles, sure, and a dedication both to the game of baseball and his own fitness that does Ripken enormous credit.

But in the final months of his career, passing the 3,000-game mark seemed to become more important than the Orioles' results.

Look at how it all ended for the Hall of Famer.

A sell-out crowd of 48,807, including former President Bill Clinton and Major League commissioner Bud Selig, attended his 3,001st and final game - but the result was another ignominious defeat for the Orioles in a 2-for-48 streak.

Interestingly, Ripken's best-ever batting average for a season (.340) came in 1999, the year after his consecutive games streak ended.

It was almost as if, once the pressure of the record had gone, he could focus his attention on his game once again.

There is an interesting parallel here with the great Ed Moses, the greatest 400m hurdler of all time.

Moses in action during his incredible winning streak

Moses was famously unbeaten in 122 consecutive races, stretching from 26 August 1977 to 4 June 1987 - a total of nine years, nine months and nine days.

When he was finally beaten by Danny Harris and the constant talk of his winning run was silenced, Moses produced one of his finest performances.

At the 1987 world championships in Rome he won a titanic battle to claim a wonderful gold, holding off the challenge of Harris and Harald Schmidt by a fraction.

The message was clear - the record might have gone, but the magic was still there.

Moses would probably agree that records mean nothing compared to championships and trophies.

What do you think gave more pleasure to Arsene Wenger - the fact that Arsenal's run of 14 successive league wins at the end of last season equalled an English record, or that it helped them win the Premiership title?

And when the Gunners drew 2-2 at West Ham in August 2002, did Wenger curse the fact the record had not been extended, or celebrate that his side had come back from 2-0 down to snatch a valuable away point?

Australia captain Ricky Ponting is justifiably proud of his side's record. "The more I think about it the more unbelievable I think it is," he said on Sunday.

But, like most of his countrymen, Ponting is a pragmatist. And what will please him far more than the record itself is the fact that series of wins encompassed the biggest prize of all - the World Cup.