Arthur, Clarke and Dovey were right in axing Watson, Johnson, Pattinson and Khawaja
Shane Watson answers questions from the media upon arrival at Sydney International Airport on Tuesday [March 12, 2013] in Sydney, Australia. Watson returned home following disciplinary action against him and three other players by the team management on the tour of India © Getty Images
Trailing 0-2 in the four-match series, Australia have shot themselves in the foot, not once, but four times, by disallowing Shane Watson, James Pattinson, Mitchell Johnson and Usman Khawaja, from being in contention for the upcoming Mohali Test against India. However, once all the anger and the Twitter jibes have subsided, Jaideep Vaidya says that one would realise it was the correct call to take.
Four days prior to what is certain to be a massive Test for the Australian cricket team, a three-headed harbinger of doom clouded over their camp and washed out the remotest of chances the team had of igniting a comeback in the series. The coach-captain-manager combine of Mickey Arthur, Michael Clarke and Gavin Dovey banned four players — the vice-captain, Shane Watson; the most experienced bowler, Mitchell Johnson; the most effective fast bowler on tour so far, James Pattinson; and a promising young batsman who was likely to get a chance in Mohali, Usman Khawaja — from including their names in the hat of selection for the third Test. Why? Because they failed to do their homework.
Now, you might be right in asking, like many others closely associated with Australian cricket have, whether we’re talking about a bunch of fifth graders here, or the Australian cricket team. How many times has a professional sports team banned its players for failing to make a presentation? Is that what cricketers in Australia are reduced to now?
“Adults we are, not schoolboys!” proclaimed former batsman and current Queensland Bulls coach Darren Lehmann.
Tom Moody, also a coach, revealed that report-writing may not be a player’s strength and saw no logic in the decision.
The netizens weren’t far behind, with an array of photoshopped images mocking the decision cropping up online by the second. While some had the drawing of a bat with a description of its parts and instructions on how to hold it, others ridiculed the Australian team by providing their own two cents worth on the three points that should have gone in the presentation: Bat better, bowl better and field better.
To put it all in a nutshell, the million dollar question was: Why are international cricket players being made to write an essay or prepare a presentation when it’s clearly not what they’re paid to do. Why are Australian cricketers being treated like a bunch of corporate chums in a multinational corporation?
Here is a counter question: How difficult is it to reflect on your performance and write down three bullet points in five days? It isn’t rocket science, is it? You’re hurting from two heavy defeats, you’ve got a couple of days off from training and got sufficient time to reflect. You probably already know the areas where you and your team are going to have to work on. Is it so difficult, then, to put pen on paper?
Regardless of Michael Clarke later revealing that it wasn’t a one-off incident, rather a tipping point, when 12 other members of the squad have managed to do it, why couldn’t the remaining four? At the end of the day, no player is bigger than the team. Report-writing may not be a cricketer’s forte, but if you’re not capable of jotting down three points on your own performance, leave alone the team’s, then the problem lies deeper elsewhere.
The Australian skipper must have used the word “unacceptable” at least 83 times while explaining the decision in the near 10-minute video that Cricket Australia published on their YouTube channel. One of the instances was: “We can’t accept mediocrity here. This is the Australian cricket team. Four of our players did not adhere to what is required from them, and that is unacceptable if you want to be a part of the Australian cricket team.” It’s difficult to reason against such a statement.
Arthur revealed in a press conference that Watson and Pattinson failed to make the five-day deadline given to the players, while Johnson and Khawaja completely forgot about the assignment. Such an extreme lackadaisical attitude warrants some punishment, whether you are a corporate firm or the Australian cricket team. One of the four culprits, Pattinson, later admittedly said, “It is something that should have been completed and as a member of the team the others take full responsibility for it. It should have been done, all the other players bar four got it in. There is no excuse.”
The other three sacked players would do well to take a leaf out of Pattinson’s book, take the punishment in their stride and concentrate on forcing themselves in for contention for the final Test in Delhi. The team is already in tatters on a tough Indian tour; the Englishmen are laughing themselves sick, licking their palms in anticipation for the upcoming Ashes; the fans back home are in total shock with the revelations, having already been made to witness a double drubbing at the hands of Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s men. The Australians will have to ensure that they are at the bottom of the circumference of the wheel and there’s only one way to go from here.
It’s hard to imagine there not being a bigger picture hidden underneath the whole ruckus. Arthur and Company are not gullible enough to axe four players, three of whom were certain to make the playing XI at Mohali, without a plausible reason. Clarke refused to dwell into it on a public platform, and so did Arthur. Dirty linen shouldn’t be washed in public and the duo were right in refusing to do so.
Whatever issues the team has to sort out should be done at the earliest. While this tour is all but a lost cause, Australia cannot afford such slip-ups against the old enemy in the months to come.
(JaideepVaidya is multiple sports buff and a writer at CricketCountry. He has a B.E. in Electronics Engineering, but that isn’t fooling anybody. He started writing on sports during his engineering course and fell in love with it. The best day of his life came on April 24, 1998, when he witnessed birthday boy Sachin Tendulkar pummel a Shane Warne-speared Aussie attack from the stands during the Sharjah Cup Final. A diehard Manchester United fan, you can follow him on Twitter @jaideepvaidya. He also writes a sports blog – The Mullygrubber )