Former Australia cricketer Simon Katich on Tuesday disagreed with Michael Clarke’s message to the players that they should not bother about being liked but instead continue playing tough and focus on winning.
Katich and Clarke reportedly don’t get along after a bust-up at the Sydney Cricket Ground in 2009. Katich had reportedly grabbed Clarke by the throat after an argument about the singing of the team song following a Test match.
Clarke on Tuesday slammed attempts to improve Australian cricket’s image in the wake of the ball-tampering scandal earlier this year. The former Australia captain insisted the national team “won’t win a game” without its infamous abrasive attitude.
“You don’t need to be best mates with everyone,” Clarke had said. “Australian cricket, I think, needs to stop worrying about being liked and start worrying about being respected.
“Play tough Australian cricket. Because 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.”
However, Katich said that Clarke is missing the point. “What’s been forgotten in all of this is we blatantly cheated and the the reason we’re at this point now, and what led us to this point, and we talk about the line that was talked about for so long,” he told Australian radio station 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.
“It’s a tough battle for this team taking on the burden of what’s come before them.
“They can still play the Australian way in terms of playing competitive and playing fairly, but not going over the top and going across the rules like they did in Cape Town,” he added.
A scathing independent review into the ball-tampering scandal released last month revealed a bullying culture within the sport and criticised cricketers for “playing the mongrel” against opponents.
In response, the team produced a so-called Players’ Pact, urging Australians to “compete with us, smile with us, fight with us, dream with us”.
Australia Test captain Tim Paine has also spoken of shaking opponents’ hands before a series and respecting the umpires, in stark contrast to the Australians’ previous conduct.
With inputs from AFP