And so our Michael Clarke’s fired off at the hip at something that’s upset him.
He’s taken Gerard Whateley to task, and defended his part in forming Australia’s cricket culture by saying he took the team from No.5 to No.1 in the world, and that if Gerard had a problem with it he didn’t say so then.
Clarke further declared that to insinuate he had anything to do with the ball-tampering affair was ridiculous. He further had it that Australia played “hard but fair” – and no worse, anyway, than anyone else.
Yet Australian cricket is in a period of deep introspection. It took a cataclysm, but Australia’s international cricketers are finally around to the fact that the Australian national team isn’t liked that much, at home and abroad.
Particularly abroad – most Australian fans wouldn’t understand how much the Australian team is disliked. The Australian players are generally liked individually. The team is seen as boorish, overbearing, over-aggressive dickheads.
Clarke reckons the team shouldn’t worry about being liked. But rather worry about being respected. And just win. And win. And win.
But they have won, a lot, over the years. And been less-and-less admired.
Overseas, Australian cricketers have always been respected … as cricketers. But as blokes? As sportsmen? Yeah, not so much.
And that, as Simon Katich implied, is where Clarke rather misses the point.
“What’s been forgotten is we blatantly cheated,” said Katich on SEN. “The point is, we were caught for blatantly cheating and we have to rectify that as soon as possible to earn back the respect of the cricketing public in Australia and worldwide.
“We’ve been a disliked team for a number of years through that on-field behaviour and it obviously came to a head in Cape Town.”
Said Whateley: “Clarke’s interpretation of the predicament the Australian men’s Test team finds itself in is breathtaking. That he would continue to rely on the line – the fiction his and subsequent teams used to excuse all manner of boorish behaviour – might be the single greatest piece of nonsense over the past nine months.
“Australia didn’t know what or where the line was. That’s how it ended up with sandpaper on the field.”
Cameron Bancroft of Australia talks to the umpire before the incident which rocket Australian cricket. (AP Photo/Halden Krog)
Clarke wasn’t going to cop blame for ball-tampering.
“For Gerard Whateley — to insinuate that I am responsible for the ball tampering issues makes him nothing more than a headline chasing coward,” wrote Clarke.
“Perhaps if he was talented enough or courageous enough to make it onto a cricket pitch he would have a better perspective than from behind a microphone.
“Finally Mr Wheatley, if you think that the current No. 1 team in the world of cricket right now puts being liked as of higher importance than being respected and playing to win inside the rules of our game than you’re as delirious as you are ill informed.”
Probable he meant delusional. And there’s a hyphen after ill. And he’s listed a bunch of assertions as “facts”.
And calling the bloke a coward because he wasn’t good at batting, well … Michael Clarke should get his hand off it.
My cricket career never got further than fourth grade in Canberra. But you can still have an opinion. And mine is this: why you can’t play ‘hard’ cricket without carrying on like a tool?
This faux-tough, ‘Aussie way’ of cricket where we sledge blokes and get chippy – and then can’t cop it back or take some form of responsibility when a South African or West Indian gets personal in return – seems immature.
Live by sword, all that. And when you’ve danced so long along the line, you shouldn’t be surprised you get something nasty back.
The culture review identified a team that didn’t get that. That lived in a bubble of their own importance.
Mind you all the sledging stuff, it’s overblown a bit anyway. You can have a word with the opposition. If you’re putting them off, that’s the idea of it.
It’s international cricket. It’s meant to be difficult – emotionally as much as physically. If saying something to a batter at the non-striker’s end takes his mind off batting and he gets out, job done.
But there’s a way to do it without being a wanker.
For a start try this: don’t be a wanker!
With Australian cricket in such a tizz, Michael Clarke alluding back to some over-aggressive “Australian way” that’s “in our blood” … it’s not helpful. The Australian team is seen as bullying dickheads. Perception is reality.
Australian captain Michael Clarke batting in the baggy green. (Photo by Steve Christo/Corbis via Getty Images)
Nup – can’t go with Michael Clarke on this one. One hundred per cent support his right to reply.
And I agree with him that “you can blame culture, you can blame chairman of the board, you can blame the CEO, at the end of the day, three people made a decision that they have to live with for the rest of their life.”
I don’t think Clarke or the board or Boof Lehmann were responsible for the sandpaper thing. That’s a long bow, for mine.
But all these people were responsible for “culture”. And for Clarke to surmise that he had nothing to do with a culture so hell-bent on winning that it would countenance cheating, well, he did captain the bloody team. He’s had an effect.
He didn’t rub the ball with sandpaper. But nor did he clamp down on the greater barking bullshit that’s made the Australian team so disliked, in Australia as much anywhere.
Indeed he encouraged it. Because that’s how we won, according to Michael Clarke.
For mine, I’m liking Australia under Tim Paine more than I liked Australia under Michael Clarke.
Paine will attack and play “aggressive” cricket. He’ll say something to the opposition if they say something to him. And apparently he’s quite quick with it, and smart.
But there seems a streak of sportsmanship in the bloke. Perception and reality there too. Actions matter. The pre-series hand-shaking thing. That’s a sign of respect.
You want Australia to have that, Australia has to give it, too.
Sam
Roar Rookie
The fundamental problem was the way the team carried on in the years before the sandpaper incident, which saw bell ends like Warner carry on without any reprisals. And why was the behaviour not discouraged? Because of this outdated notion that Clarke is peddling that acting such a way is how Australians play cricket and if we don't do it we "won't win s..t". Which is a load of tripe. And for some reason people such as Clarke seem to think that if the team aren't acting like dickheads they must be playing soft. Believe it or not, you can play tough uncompromising cricket without making fans - including your own - dislike you. And yep, Hayden was/is a prat as well.
Noel
Guest
Best comment in this thread. Thanks Matt H.
Noel
Guest
That's actually not the case, bb. Though I don't say I've done the research myself, I've read a number of articles about Clarke's 'response' - and there's plenty of evidence that the Aussie 'culture' was being called out by a number of journos - in particular Gerard - whilst Clarke was in charge. Homework-gate anyone? In any event, I think the most telling part about all of this is the tone of MC's response. It was petulant, it was insightless, it was childish, it refused to acknowledge any form of responsibility. All of those adjectives were attributed to Clarke directly or indirectly by Gerard. MC just proved Gerard's point.
qwetzen
Roar Rookie
"I don’t see anyone having a go at Waugh’s win-at-all-costs mentality" That'd be because SRW didn't have one. He was exclusively concerned with himself...
Simoc
Guest
Can't you read? Clarke is not being blamed alone. He just took a dumb stance on history and a personal attack and is being held to account for it, which he doesn't like.
Peter
Roar Rookie
This is like a semi-proxy war. Whateley is really just Kat. They should get in the boxing ring, Clarke and Katich. No headlocks or broken arms allowed.
peeeko
Roar Guru
you seem to have an intiminate knowledge of australian team culture for the last 20 years. are you an insider? i love it how sledging and sandpaper are linked
peeeko
Roar Guru
i reckon you were spot on
Basil M
Roar Rookie
But he doesn’t play for Australia, so that makes it ok.
ojp
Guest
Is that you Herm ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5-iJUuPWis
ojp
Guest
Could have just been me, but I loved the Windies through the 80's and 90's.... even got myself a Richie Rich Windies Hat to wear in the nets!
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
I think people have been fooled into believing this cultural thing leading to the ball tampering. The Australian team hardly bothered to win away recently, if they wanted to win at all costs they could start by preparing better and having more lead in matches. The actual culture of sledging become a big thing in the Shield in the 80's not in Chappel's era. One of the main proponents ironically was Greg Dyer, maybe he is the key father. Merv Hughes when he first came into the test team was the major sledger and Australia were hopeless as a team. The questions about Steve Smith , is how come at the same time they were ball tampering he was playing up the moral angle by trying to get Rabada suspended. The Australian media have played up any misbehaviour by opposition like it was major so the culture was dob in the opposition . if the three took the fall and others were involved then you would expect them to try and help them get off. It so far points out that a lot more people know what really happened and they are connected with the players association. Peever and co got taken out because they tried to rip off the players, and the blame was passed on to them.
Richard Islip
Roar Rookie
"Get ready for a broken f......... arm...".........that's a cowardly one from Clarke just for starters. Then it ramps up a whole lot, when in Clarke's mind, anyone who has not the talent ( like Clarke ), nor apparently the courage ( like Clarke ), and cannot make the international arena....is a coward. I am not sure how lack of talent is then somehow linked to lack of courage....but then this sure is another cowardly statement from Clarke, and a mighty thick statement as well, as it makes no sense. Talking about the courage factor....how come Clarke never played footy for Australia? I mean....was it lack of talent, or lack of courage, or both? That's where you have the real thing, not so? Brutal, direct physical confrontation the entire game...toe to toe with your immediate opponent and then his buddies. Try a sledge or three there, and see what happens. Try to think before that mouth opens, Clarke.
Ashley H
Guest
Bullying dicheads .... that says it all!
JOHN ALLAN
Guest
Worst sledge of all time was McGrath's effort directed at Sarwan. Captain Waugh did nothing. After all it was only "mental disintegration".
Rob
Guest
It’s interesting that players during the war era were possibly more cowardly than those of the 2000’s if Clarke’s They certainly conduct themselves differently on the sporting field Captain Clarke. If Michael Clarke understood the disgust Australians had towards Douglas Jarden’s body line tactics he may have saved a life. Maybe if Steve Smith had realised Faf was a cheat rather than a winner.
Rob
Guest
I also thought the Philip Hughes tragedy may have been a reality check for some. Obviously the “do what ever it takes to get a wicket and achieve the win” narrative still takes priority over the ethos of sportsmanship and integrity. It’s incredibly to think junior cricket has made it mandatory for children to wear helmets in response to Phillips death? Even in 40 degrees. Why? Kids shouldn’t be looking to verbally insult opponents, bowl at their heads and abuse them when they are dismissed. For the record balls bowled at a batsmen head rarely result in a wicket but frequently go for runs. Maybe focus on hitting the stumps and beating the bat with clever skilful bowling.
anon
Roar Pro
Little wonder why western culture will be chewed up and spat out by China in this century. Maybe not the US, but certainly everywhere else. What a weak society we live in. Endless navel gazing, grandstanding, virtue signalling. A culture bored with itself. You play professional cricket to WIN within the RULES. Players will bend the rules from time to time. You enforce the rules or punish them to discourage them from trying to break them. Simple as that. When winning is no longer the priority it turns into something resembling Auskick or some wishy washy "sport" like synchronised swimming. Bradman was great because he was a winner. He won, won, won, then won some more. Horrible person by most accounts, but a winner and doesn't everyone love a winner. I certainly do. I don't like Clarke, but have to defend him here. This was Steve Smith's team. Steve Smith's team cheated.
DAR
Guest
Far has been convicted of ball tampering twice. His board chose to take no action. Hardly makes him a saint!
dcnz
Guest
i read, but didn't see, that Davy Warner sledged and followed Amla all the way from the boundary rope to the crease when he came into bat during one of the Seth Africa tests. is this true? if so, is this what Cricket Australia wants? In the words of the immortal Michael Clarke: Get ready for a farking broken arm.