By Jim Morton
November 24th 2009 @ 3:20am
Johnson admits personal dramas caused meltdown
A “mentally-tougher” Mitchell Johnson has revealed the personal pain of his mother’s attack on his fiancee sparked his Ashes meltdown in England.
Johnson on Monday owned up to being severely affected by the controversy, which he feared could end his Test career after a dreadful start to the Ashes.
The Australian pace spearhead — the 2009 international player of the year — admitted he expected to be dropped for spraying his bowling in the second Test loss at Lord’s.
While the pressure of the situation and the baiting by the boisterous English crowds didn’t help, Johnson said his tour got off the wrong foot due to his well-publicised personal issues.
His mother, Vikki Harber, threw the publicity-shy and sensitive Johnson into the spotlight by saying he’d been stolen away from her by fiancee Jessica Bratich.
Johnson put himself off-limits to the media early in the Ashes tour, and then later blamed his poor form more on technical bowling issues — something he corrected after getting in camp with the Australian Test squad on Monday.
“”I guess it (poor form) started off with the personal side of things – that really probably did get to me,” he said.
“I was probably denying it as well at the time, and copping it from the crowd didn’t help.
“Mentally I have learnt to be a lot stronger. I’ve just got to concentrate on what I’m doing out in the middle.
“This is what I have to do for a living and I’ve just got to leave everything behind me when I’m out there.
“It got technical as well because I was thinking about it but in the end it was just more of a mental thing.
“I just had to concentrate on where I wanted to bowl the ball and how I wanted to get those guys out and I just wasn’t doing that, maybe even through the first Test (in Cardiff).
“But through that Lord’s Test I was thinking about everything possible.”
Johnson, who had bowled Australia to a memorable series win in South Africa in April, said he was amazed by how big the issue of his problems became.
“I block things out pretty well normally but I think it was just the Ashes, the whole hype of it, and the personal things that came out,” he said.
“It was something I didn’t expect with the media how much there was and the personal side of things and the crowd, just everything was full-on.
“I guess for it was a good learning curve to go through all that and hopefully I’ve passed all that and next time be mentally stronger.
“I put a little bit too much pressure on myself as well through how well I did in South Africa.”
Johnson was grateful to captain Ricky Ponting and the selectors that he was allowed to keep his place in the team, and is determined to continue repaying them for the faith shown.
“I definitely thought I wasn’t going to play the Edgbaston Test,” he said.
“But I’m glad I got that opportunity again, you just can’t take anything for granted.
“Who knows where I could have been now, I could be back playing state cricket.
“For those guys to have that confidence in me gave me confidence as well. It made me think a lot more positively about what my role was in the team.”
The Queensland-raised West Australian is licking his lips at the prospect of locking horns with former Bulls teammate Brendan Nash, who he shared a house with three years ago, when he lines up against the West Indies on Thursday at the Gabba.
“I told him ages ago he was going to cop it,” Johnson said of the West Indian batsman.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen when I get out in the middle – I might just laugh at him.
“I’m quite proud of what he has done — he has made a big move over there. But once we get out there, we are not mates.”
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