Tales of Brave Ulysses - The Death of Unity

Mike Hussey's
new book

It's not true until someone writes a book to set the record straight. So ...

... since Mike Hussey has released a book, then the two most talked about incidents in Australian cricket of the last ten years must be true. The interesting slant on both of them, is the responsibility which Hussey takes for both, still prepared, it seems, to take one for the team. In the days since the then vice captain, Shane Watson, was suspended and sulked off home to Australia, damage control has been at first trying to deny riffs in the squad, then down play them and finally make it known that all is forgiven.

Now Hussey, a man hurt badly by decisions made by others during the twilight of his career, enters the fray with not so much as an olive branch but instead a sign pointing to the fire escape. 

By comparison, Mr Cricket, defined a team man by being declared the baton holder in a relay of great team men tracing back forty years to Rod Marsh and by his very nickname, was offered no favours at the end. Dropped from the one day squad, with merely a few days warning, he left before the axe removed his head. Perhaps, in his haste to jump rather be pushed, he misread the selectors intentions. Perhaps he was very much in their plans for India and England. No sane judge could argue otherwise. Or perhaps, his gut was already overflowing with disharmony and disloyalty and being treated like a junior. 

Maybe Hussey fell on his own sword before it stabbed him in the back. Its a gracious man who can come to praise Caesar rather than bury him, but then, Hussey is an honourable man. 

Simon Katich

Both events described in Underneath The Southern Cross happened in Sydney as a result of dressing room post match hours. The Sydney Test has for years been in the first week of the New Year and following on from Melbourne's traditional Boxing Day match, the players have usually had ten days of intense cricket while the rest of the country sat around in and with stubbies. The most publicly discussed conflict was a clash between Simon Katich and then vice captain Michael Clarke after Australia had beaten South Africa and then entertained the Proteas in the very traditional rooms at the SCG. At the time, what happened in the room didn't stay in the room and the media hounded Clarke immediately and then a few years later when Katich was dropped from the team at a time when he was the best Australian batsman of the previous two calendar years. The blame, it was said, didn't lay with the faulty logic of Andrew Hilditch and his selection panel, who claimed Katich would be too old to be of value in the Test series just recently lost 3-0 against England. No, the commentary went from pub to pub and across the back pages, Clarke had him removed upon ascending to the captaincy.

It was a claim Clarke denied and Katich believed, restated and was still arguing at his retirement press conference.

Hussey claims blame. The evening had gone on and on as the visitors and the home side enjoyed bevies and stories and jests in that way that sportsmen love to do when the fat lady is exhausted from singing and resting in her king sized bed. As custodian of the rather strangely named team song - strange in that it is in reality a chant - Hussey says he became too involved in the revelry and had failed to jump on the table and bring his men Under The Southern Cross before the Sarth Efrikans had arrived. As the last hour collapsed on midnight and with no sign of the guests leaving, two Australians were starting to seethe. Clarke, locked in earnest discussion with manager Steve Bernard, was concerned for the booking the team had at a Sydney restaurant and Katich, overhearing him, started to resent what appeared to be Clarke's lack of respect for traditions.

The media reported, at the time, that Katich believed Clarke was concerned at standing Ms Bingle up. Nothing Hussey has revealed refutes that claim, just defuses it.

Suddenly, according to Hussey, Clarke and Katich were in the centre of the room, visitors and all, displaying the unity which has marked Australian cricket since. Mr Cricket says it was all his fault.

Hussey and Lyon before
Mr Cricket's last Test

The second incident, less well known or perhaps just less well reported, did the rounds via a rogue email which spread like a grass fire on a hot January afternoon after the final Test against Pakistan last year, again in Sydney. The email claimed that Hussey, having been asked how he preferred to spend the post match hours of his final Test, had asked for a few hours with his team mates in the rooms and then dinner with the families. Clarke, it claimed, said he had arranged time for the team on James Packer's yacht and denied Hussey his wish, leaving the veteran alone bar Nathan Lyon in the dressing room after an hour. Little wonder, it was said, Lyon became the chant leader.

The latest Hussey version differs in terms of venue - he stayed at the hotel with his family - but the basic personnel stay the same. Lyon and Peter Siddle preferred to be with Hussey but the rest of the team went with Clarke, who had organised the boat months in advance. Shane Watson, it is said in the Hussey account, was most upset and argued with Clarke to change plans (children couldn't go on the Packer barge). The seeds of discontent between the leadership team were sown that night, as Watson believed mates in the team were more important than heavy hitters on the outside.

Unfortunately, rather than clearing up these incidents, the revelations from the West Australian veteran only offer up himself as a scapegoat. The reality is, Clarke remains in the spotlight for having made choices and staying inflexible about them, leading to disharmony. The two dressing room incidents were early examples of his inability to grapple with different personalities off the field and of a refusal to compromise  Sooner or later, men of passion like Katich or Watson would be bound to object. Andrew Symonds was another. On the paddock, Clarke is an instinctive leader, prepared to back his intuition and lead by example. He's a gambler and an innovator where Ricky Ponting was conservative. There is no doubt he plays under duress, constantly bothered with lower back pain and the growing threat it poses to his career.

Off the field, he prefers management to lead in much the same way Allan Border did once Bob Simpson took hold of his marionette sticks. He'll only go along with team bonding so far but prefers his own interests after hours. Its the part of him most Bradmanesque. His choice to invite no team mates to his very small, very private wedding is as much his right as it was a mistake and Pink Floydish in its implications to team unity. Clarke manages his image better than he does his players. Allowing his players to be sacked in India should not have been a surprise to anyone. 

Warne and Clarke

Perhaps it comes down to influence. Its becoming a concern that Shane Warne says things in the press box - things as serious as selection issues or how bowlers should be used - and they happen on the field soon after. The guidance of former players is one thing but Clarke seems unhealthily attached to his heroes.

There are big problems with the culture of the Australian dressing room which extend beyond falling into the abyss that always opens when a coterie of greats retire in concurrence. Australia does have a weakened side and many of the replacements won't ever be Test players but as the past reveals, some might. Treating them like boys won't make them into men, which is why the Mickey Arthur experiment failed and the change to Darren Lehmann is a step toward the light. Getting some immediate past players into the rooms who would tear your arm off rather than let go of their Baggy Green, would be a move that would give the current players the role models they might otherwise have watched the game with had years fallen differently.

Ask Shane Warne to stay in the bar.

Another Ponting outburst

Michael Clarke's role model, he often states, was Ricky Ponting. The guy who turned little man syndrome into an art form was a one of the best six batsmen to ever play a cover drive or frighten a square leg fieldsman with a pull shot but despite his record, he was a lousy captain. The example he showed Clarke was largely one of bad temper, dressing room tantrums, indecision in the face of his senior players and on field clashes with officials. He was a man's man - whatever that means - a captain who intimidated his own players as much as opposition bowlers. He was no Steve Waugh and he was certainly no Mark Taylor. They knew the role of leadership. Ponting only knew the role of captaincy.

He played no active role, as a leader, before or during the clash that revealed the truth between Kats and Dog. If he sought to reconcile them after, it didn't work.

Clarke can do no more than learn what he was shown, making it Boof's responsibility to join the dots for an Australia skipper who offers much but needs to know how.

In this climate, where the only loyalty in the team is on cafe cards in their wallets, the great danger for the Australians when they go out to bat isn't the blokes waiting for them in the middle with three lions on their chest . No, the real threat waits in the dressing room.