Former Aussie cricketer Simon Katich has turned the spotlight back on Australia’s own actions in response to former captain Michael Clarke’s criticism of Australia’s new brand of ‘nice’ cricket.
‘Australian cricket, I think, needs to stop worrying about being liked and start worrying about being respected,’ said Clarke on Macquarie Sports Radio. ‘Play tough Australian cricket. Whether we like it or not, that’s in our blood.
‘If you try and walk away from it, we might be the most liked team in the world, we’re not going to win s**t. We won’t win a game. Boys and girls want to win,’ added Clarke. His comments came a week after Proteas skipper Faf du Plessis had labelled the Australian team as ‘tame’ at the end of their brief white ball tour of Australia.
Katich offered a different viewpoint as he expressed the belief that Australian cricket should first address fixing its reputation, ultimately ruined at Newlands with the Sandpapergate incident following years of poor discipline and bad behaviour on the field of play.
‘What’s been forgotten in all of this is we blatantly cheated,’ said Katich on SEN radio. ‘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.’
During his earlier radio interview, Clarke had offered an interesting take on banned Aussie batter David Warner’s motivation for engaging in on-field verbal battles.
‘David Warner gives it to certain blokes on the field because he wants them to give it to him when he’s batting. It’s like a turn on – it makes him play better. It’s his style; he’s very upfront, in your face. What you see with David Warner is what you get,’ said Clarke, before adding that he and Warner had engaged in ‘a number of conversations one-on-one about that line he couldn’t overstep’.
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