Michael Clarke Comments On Johnson Vs Warner: Former Australian captain Michael Clarke has hinted at a beef between former Aussie fast-bowler Mitchell Johnson and current Aussie vatter David Warner. This stemmed from a contentious column written by Johnson regarding Warner’s retirement.
Johnson recently wrote a Sunday column in The West Australian, where he tore into the legacy of David Warner, questioning whether the opening batter deserves a Test farewell.
Warner had previously announced that he would be retiring from international cricket following the Test match against Pakistan in his home ground of Sydney in January 2024. It is all but confirmed that Cricket Australia will be celebrating the occasion and honoring one of the greatest batters of his time.
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Johnson, however, believes that it shouldn’t be the case. In his column, the former pacer noted that the Delhi Capitals batter only has an average of 26-74 in his last 36 Tests and that he should no longer be part of the team, with a Test farewell being a long shot.
In his column, Johnson even discussed the 2018 ball-tampering incident, when during a Test match against, Cameron Bancroft was caught tampering with that ball with sandpaper. Following the incident, Bancroft, team captain Steve Smith, and vice-captain David Warner were suspended for a year.
Johnson claimed that, unlike Steve Smith, David Warner has never fully accepted his culpability in the ball-tampering scandal.
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“It’s been five years and David Warner has still never really owned the ball-tampering scandal… Now the way he is going out is underpinned by more of the same arrogance and disrespect to our country,” he wrote in the column.
Arguably in the most contentious part of his column, the 42-year-old wrote –
“Why a struggling Test opener gets to nominate his own retirement date. And why a player at the center of one of the biggest scandals in Australian cricket history warrant a hero’s send-off?”
Mitchell Johnson
Michael Clarke Comments On Johnson Vs Warner
Former Australian captain Michael Clarke, who captained both – Johnson and Warner in the 2015 ODI World Cup winning campaign, reckoned that all former players are entitled to keep their own opinions, but they shouldn’t make anything personal. He also opined that Mitchell Johnson has some beef with David Warner.
During a recent appearance on Big Sports’ Breakfast, Clarke had this to say about this whole saga –
“Yeah maybe I’ve missed something here … Mitch hasn’t played for years now so maybe there is a beef, I don’t know. When you’re in a role like this … if you have an opinion and it’s based on what’s best for the team, or your experience, then go with that. But it should never be personal. I try not to make it personal and if it comes across that way you try and apologize for that because you don’t want that.”
Michael Clarke
With that being said, Clarke also explained that not everyone who has played with each other is a friend, and differences are bound to grow between such strong personalities –
“In every sporting team. Not everybody gets on. Not everyone is best friends. Dave is a strong character, Mitch is a strong character, (and they) went hard at each other in the nets. I saw that but I couldn’t sit here and say they had beef against one another when we played.”
Even chief selector and former Kangaroo captain George Bailey, who was also targetted by Johnson in the column, spoke against it. He suggested the former fast-bowler to put himself in the players’ shoes before commenting on them.
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