Inside story of SCG fight night
The Australian’s Peter Lalor gives a blow-by-blow account of the incident between Michael Clarke and Simon Katich after the final day of the SCG Test.
Peter English
25-Feb-2013
The Australian’s Peter Lalor gives a blow-by-blow account of the incident between Michael Clarke and Simon Katich after the final day of the SCG Test.
Captain Ricky Ponting doesn't insist on too much from his charges, but he insists they celebrate a win and Australia's win over South Africa was a big thing. It had been a tough summer, the team had already lost the series and it had been a great Test that had gone down to the wire.
It was about five hours after the game finished and Clarke wanted to go. The older members of the team weren't ready to pack up just yet and the rule is that nobody can go until the team song is sung by its custodian. Things were heating up and about to get heated.
In the Sydney Morning Herald Peter Roebuck looks at Clarke’s 98 at the MCG on Friday along with the culture of dressing rooms.
Male sportsmen relish sitting in the rooms as night falls across an empty ground, sipping beer, exchanging yarns. It is their secret place and it has its own rituals. But exhaustion and alcohol are potent partners. Maybe the problem these days is that players are too tightly strung, and drink for the wrong purpose. Of course, the other problem has been the lack of maturity in the rooms since the departure of John Buchanan.
Will Swanton says in the same paper Clarke will be the next Test captain, but has some other questions over the scuffle.
Peter English is former Australasia editor of ESPNcricinfo