The verdict is out on Shane Watson's renaissance
The BBC’s Oliver Brett attempts to explain the paradox that is Shane Watson: a man who has been Australia’s second highest run-scorer since the 2009 Ashes series, but is yet to impress many of his countrymen.
Dustin Silgardo
25-Feb-2013
The BBC’s Oliver Brett attempts to explain the paradox that is Shane Watson: a man who has been Australia’s second highest run-scorer since the 2009 Ashes series, but is yet to impress many of his countrymen.
To the unreconstructed Australian sports fan, Watson is thus something of an anomaly - and it helps explain the paradox that he does not meet with universal approval in his own country. The Australian blogger Jarrod Kimber really sticks the boot in, writing recently: "It takes real talent to be hated when you are pathetic and just as despised when you are good. Even those who have the talent to get to this level of hatred could never do it as well as Shane Watson. When not in front of the mirror, he seems to be able to move 95% of cricket fans into a frenzy of hate, pure detestation, clear revulsion, and a general uneasy sickness of rage."
Dustin Silgardo is a former sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo