spats between Australian cricket teammates: MICHAEL Clarke’s explosive autobiography has brought to the surface the ugly reality that Australian cricket teammates often aren’t friends — and are sometimes enemies.
With the Australian public still wowed by revelations of the strained relationships under Clarke’s Australian captaincy, we look back at 10 notable feuds and spats that preceded the Pup era.
DON BRADMAN vs JACK FINGLETON
The greatest ever cricketer was also one of the most divisive and the strict Protestant often clashed with Catholic members of the team.
He had issues with Bill O’Reilly and also Keith Miller, but they were overshadowed by his dealings with Catholic Jack Fingleton.
In a Fingleton biography it was claimed that during a match in Sydney, Bradman learned Fingleton’s bat had been sprinkled with holy water by a Catholic bishop.
When he was out cheaply Bradman passed Fingleton on his way to the middle and sledged him: “We’ll see what a dry bat will do out there.” Don scored a ton, as he did.
Fingleton was blamed for leaking a story to the media during the Bodyline series but always believed Bradman was the guilty party but wouldn’t own up, and later felt Bradman stepped in to stop him touring England in 1934.
GRAHAM YALLOP vs RODNEY HOGG
The 1978-79 home Ashes series was a disaster for Australia, a team shorn of World Series Cricket stars was pummelled 5-1. There was one shining light, the performance of tearaway paceman Hogg, but his ugly personality clash with his captain Yallop reached a nadir in Adelaide. Yallop stormed into the dressing room during play to confront an injured Hogg and the bowler invited his skipper out the back of the stands to settle their dispute via fisticuffs. They reconciled almost 30 years later when Hogg invited Yallop to launch his book.
KIM HUGHES vs ROD MARSH/DENNIS LILLEE
These were feuds so epic and convoluted; involving jealousy over captaincy selections, WSC rejection, and basic personality differences; that it’s hard to nail it in a few sentences. But the low point came on Australia’s 1981 tour of England.
Marsh often took it upon himself to change Hughes’ field settings and the white-anting famously included Marsh and Lillee betting against their team at 500-1 in the famous Botham Test. The anecdote that best sums up the raw feelings between the men came much later from batsman Craig Serjeant. It involved a net session when Lillee bounced Hughes and nearly sconed him. “Sorry,” said Lillee, and Hughes responded, “Oh, that’s okay.” Lillee fired back “Sorry I didn’t f***ing hit ya.”
DEAN JONES vs MERV HUGHES
This is perhaps the most unlikely feud on the list. Two great Victorian characters and former tight mates who had a bitter falling out over a club cricket sledding war that Jones says is the “biggest regret of my life”.
“Several hard-nosed players involved in that game who had heard all forms of sledding in the brutally contested Sheffield Shield have said that listening to the once great friends deride each other with demeaning remarks was one of their most awkward moments on a cricket field,” wrote Ben Horne.
“I didn’t want the friendship (to end),” Jones said. “The game isn’t just about winning all the time. We went to war together.”
GREG MATTHEWS vs DEAN JONES
If they ever clashed face-to-face then the story is yet to be told. But would a mate react the way Matthews did when asked to talk about Dean Jones’ famous double century in the tied Test against India, rated by Jones as his “Everest” and by many of his teammates as the bravest knock they ever witnessed? Matthews, who took the final wicket of the game, was brutally dismissive when asked about the Jones innings this year.
“It was on an absolute road. Look at the numbers – 1488 runs were scored on that surface. The guy (Jones) was 23, in his prime, fit as a mallee bull. If you are not fit enough to walk out there and play, don’t come whingeing to me. He lost a few kilos – it just blows me away,” Matthews told Fairfax Media.
“People say: ‘What do you think?’ I am not here to lie to anyone. I watched it all unfold. People ask me: ‘How good was the dig?’ He got runs on an absolute road. Please, get over it.”
MICHAEL SLATER vs STEVE WAUGH AND ADAM GILCHRIST
Slater’s personality could be as combustible as his batting during his fluctuating career and it burst into fury on the 2001 Ashes tour when he was dropped for the final Test.
According to Slater’s autobiography, he and Waugh had it out over the decision, which came as he was struggling with the breakdown of his marriage. Gilchrist cut in to tell Slater to shut his mouth, an intervention from the usually mild-mannered vice-captain that left the axed opening batsman shocked.
“The disappointing thing for me was Steve said nothing before then, or offered any kind of support,” Slater told the Guardian in 2005. “It was hard to cop … There was a lot of anger and bitterness in me then.”
He says he was left in tears, shaking and feeling isolated after the confrontation, which ended his Test career. He was notably consoled by Shane Warne, who engaged in his spats with Waugh and Gilchrist.
Slater and Gilchrist were drawn into a far more sordid matter later on Salacious rumors that Slater had had an affair with Gilchrist’s wife Mel and fathered his son, Harrison. A public airing of the untrue rumor saw Gilchrist break down in tears during a Test inning of 204 in South Africa in 2002. He wrote in his autobiography: “It was such a ridiculous rumor that we should have been able to laugh it off, but when you’re living it, it cuts deep into your heart.”
Gilchrist sued the website that first aired the claim, reaching an out-of-court settlement.
SHANE WARNE vs STEVE WAUGH
Warne lifted the lid on this feud in stunning fashion during his appearance this year on ‘I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here’. The leg-spinner was famously snubbed for the Australian captaincy as Waugh took the reins and revealed another reason for the discontent.
Warne was furious at being dropped for a must-win Test in the West Indies in 1999. Waugh led the axing after Warne struggled in a previous game loss. He was coming off shoulder surgery but felt he was ready to lift the next match, and was instead made a “scapegoat”.
“There are lots of reasons I don’t like Steve Waugh … (one of them) because he’s the most selfish cricketer I’ve played with,” Warne said.
“I don’t like Steve Waugh for a lot of other reasons, but that (the dropping) was the reason I thought (there was no way that relationship would recover).”
Waugh has said little about the spat.
SHANE WARNE vs SCOTT MULLER
Also in 1999, Warne is alleged to have inadvertently roasted Muller live on TV during the paceman’s second and last Test match.
The infamous incident saw Muller deliver a wayward throw from the outfield and the stump microphone picked up a voice — allegedly Warne’s — saying: “He can’t bowl and he can’t throw.” Warne denied dropping the sled and it was bizarrely blamed on a Channel 9 employee who will forever be known as “Joe the Cameraman”.
Muller fired back at Warne in a domestic match that season, chirping into the stump mic: “Six for the game, Warney”, after bagging a haul of wickets. He has barely spoken about the incident since, though gave a few words to Inside Cricket magazine.
“I’ve had a dozen people ring me on this, trying to take it further, but I’m past that. There’s a certain umpire out there who knows what happened,” he said.
SHANE WARNE vs ADAM GILCHRIST
A personality as fierce as Warne’s was never going to exit Test cricket without a few beefs and this is his third entry on this list alone. It started, apparently, with a late 1990s sledding incident in a Sheffield Shield game.
“It was along the lines of Gilly being a goody two shoes but it was much more severe than that,” a former Australian player told the Courier Mail. “Warney got into Gilly that day and he was seriously offended by it. You could tell by the way he batted the way he left the ground and his general demeanor throughout the game. I don’t think he ever forgot it.”
The pair sniped at each other afterward: Notably, Gilchrist said Warne’s credibility with the Australian public may suffer due to his 2003 drug ban, while Warne called for Gilchrist to stand down as vice-captain during 2007 to let his protege Michael Clarke take the job.
MATTHEW HAYDEN vs DAMIEN MARTYN
Both Australian players have disputed this incident, saying it was embellished. England fast bowler James Anderson was the one who outed it.
Anderson claims he was egged on by Martyn, in the sheds after the Adelaide Test of the 2006-07 Ashes, to whack Michael Clarke in the head with a batting pad. Anderson recollected that he said: “See this pad here, I want to wrap it around his (Clarke’s) head. ‘Do it,’ Martyn replied, completely straight-faced.”
Anderson claims he did hit Clarke and things blew up. Hayden was not in the dressing room, as he was having a difficult series and did not want to be friendly with the Poms, and Anderson claims he fronted Martyn later that night.
“Mate, you have been the biggest wanker on the planet here, and I’m supposed to be one of your mates. Have you ever looked outside yourself and realized I’m struggling too? A person who has gone out of his way to help you?” Hayden is claimed to have said.
Martyn soon after shocked Hayden and the rest of the team with a bombshell retirement, effective immediately mid-series.
