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Oh, Mitchell Johnson, you were alright

Roar Rookie
18th November, 2015
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Mitchell Johnson (AAP Image/Dave Hunt)
Roar Rookie
18th November, 2015
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It’s always nice to be able to choose the moment you leave the stage.

It may be that a selector had a quiet word in his ear and he was given cricket’s equivalent of the revolver and a bottle of whisky, but Mitchell Johnson’s retirement today on his own terms.

It is the very least he deserves after a career full of ups, downs and – yes – big swings to the left and right.

When he did get it right, most memorably when dismantling my beloved England in 2013-14, he was absolutely fearsome. They may have broken the mould when they made Jeff Thomson, but Johnson was devastating in that series.

His spell on that sunny yet bleak Brisbane morning virtually ripped the urn back in the time it took him to bounce and york his way through our hitherto solid but thereafter discombobulated batting line-up. It all looked horribly like 1974-5 with a big, moustachioed quick causing havoc. The fact that the Poms had helmets this time didn’t seem to help!

Johnson showed it was no fluke when he took 7-68 and 5-59 to destroy a very decent South African side on their own turf in the first Test of the following series.

Of course, Mitchell didn’t have it all his own way. Despite making the most of the traditional conditions at Perth on the 2010-11 tour, he frequently leaked runs. As the Barmy Army has always been keen to explain his radar could malfunction horribly at times. Apart from a couple of throat balls last summer in England he cannot be happy with this return here.

I only saw him play once. It was in a quickly forgotten match at Edgbaston during the Champions Trophy in 2013.

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At that stage, English fans weren’t anticipating the Armageddon he would unleash only months later and we taunted him with immensely humorous cries of “Mitchell, Mitchell” throughout. He took it in good part.

After England had completed a fairly easy win – not a sentence I am often able to write about an ODI – my clearest memory of the great man was him joining a couple of his mates kicking an Aussie rules football around the outfield. He looked as if he’d rather be somewhere else.

That’s the Champions Trophy for you, I guess!

As often seems to be the case with truly impressive competitors, Johnson seems to have been happy to let his bowling, and not inconsiderable batting, do the talking.

All the indications are that he’s a decent bloke and a credit to the sport which he so often ignited in unforgettable fashion.

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