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Cricket Australia chief James Sutherland says the barking dogs incident during the Cape Town Test might have been childish, but it was still funny.
Sutherland is celebrating Michael Clarke’s side’s series triumph over South Africa which was sealed with victory in the third Test early Thursday morning (AEDT).
A Fairfax Media report claimed the team’s on-field behaviour, including skipper Clarke’s finger-pointing clash with South African tailender Dale Steyn, was taking some of the gloss off their performances as far as the public was concerned.
South Africa’s Faf du Plessis was hounded on the final day’s play by the Australians for his colourful remarks to the media mid-Test, when he likened them to “a pack of dogs” in the field.
Du Plessis was taunted about his ball-tampering charge last year and barked at, with David Warner leading the charge.
The decision by batsman du Plessis to pick up the ball during the third Test was howled down by the Australians, and his second-innings dismissal was greeted with more barking.
Sutherland said du Plessis had it coming.
“That’s just typical childish cricketers. But he asked for that with his comments a few days earlier,” Sutherland told radio 3AW.
“Some people might not see the humour in that but I did.”
Sutherland said he didn’t know the details of Clarke’s clash with Steyn, but he was pleased to see Clarke own up to being “out of line” as the skipper described it.
“I don’t even know what the exchange was. Clearly it was pretty heated,” Sutherland said.
“I was pleased to see in the broadcast, only a matter of balls later, that Michael had the good sense to say ‘Maybe I just went a little bit over the top there, Dale’.
“He clearly apologised.”
Sutherland said the post-game handshakes and embraces between Clarke’s men and retiring South African captain Graeme Smith’s side indicated the level of mutual respect between the two teams.
“Our research during the course of this series suggests the Australian public, broadly speaking, is very very proud of this Australian cricket team,” Sutherland said.
“The way they’ve turned themselves around (since the 2013 Ashes tour of the UK), they deserve a lot of credit.”
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