'Mickeyleaks' won't hurt Australia
17-Jul-2013
The claims of major tension between Michael Clarke and Shane Watson made by Mickey Arthur in his legal documents seeking compensation from Cricket Australia won't hurt the Australian camp in the lead-up to the Lord's Test, writes Greg Baum in the Age.
But look at it through the players' eyes. The fact of the Clarke/Watson rift, and other faultlines, is not news to them. Nor is the claim - strenuously denied - that it was Watson who dobbed in Warner. The language in the leaked log of claims is purple, but that is only a colour. Arthur is distant from the Australian team now, in time and place. The figures attached to his claim might might raise eyebrows, but not hair.
In the Daily Telegraph, Malcolm Conn argues that it is not necessary for players to get along, but Arthur's claims highlight one of the reasons he was axed.
How did it come to this? What was the coach doing if all this was going on under his reign? It reinforces the notion that Arthur was sacked because he was too nice a bloke. That players did not respect him enough and were taking advantage of him.
In the Telegraph, Derek Pringle says, "By taking his former employers to court, Arthur has essentially removed himself from the coaching market, especially at international level. Whether he has another career in mind is unknown, but cricket was a passion that has now gone sour."
It is well known that Watson and Michael Clarke have not been best chums for a while. But professional players do not all have to rub along together to function, as Kevin Pietersen's return to the England fold has shown. For Arthur to say he felt like the meat in the sandwich between them would only deserve sympathy if everyone in the dressing room was on the Atkins diet.
There was plenty of sympathy expressed for Arthur from Australian lips after his sacking but that will be draining away fast, given the timing of the publication of his revelations, writes Vic Marks in the Guardian.
So there is more difficult work to be done before the Lord's Test by the straight-talking management team of Lehmann and Rodney Marsh. However, there are many precedents for cricketers functioning well within a team even if they do not get on well. In the great Australia side of recent vintage Shane Warne was hardly bosom pals with Adam Gilchrist or Steve Waugh. In the great old Australia sides Bill O'Reilly and Keith Miller did not always see eye-to-eye with Don Bradman.