The Australia team management’s decision to drop four players from the touring party on disciplinary grounds boomeranged with star player Shane Watson openly revolting and quitting the tour hours after he was axed from the team for the third Test for ignoring a team management order, says a report in Hindustan Times.
Speaking to the media on the issue, Watson said he was shattered. “Any time you’re suspended for a Test unless you do something unbelievably wrong, and obviously everyone knows what those rules are - I think it is very harsh,” said Watson. The upset Australia vice-captain is also contemplating quitting Test cricket altogether, even though, he felt he was at his peak.
Meanwhile a report in Deccan Chronicle says that Australian cricket was on Monday plunged into a deep crisis when Shane Watson, vice-captain of the side touring India, and three other key players were sensationally sacked; prompting him to leave for home after saying that he was contemplating quitting Test cricket.
“That trounced by India in the first two Tests, the Australian team was preparing for the third match beginning here Thursday but the team management made the shocking announcement that Watson, two frontline pacemen James Pattinson and Mitchell Johnson and batsman Usman Khawaja had been dropped from the team on disciplinary grounds,” says the report, adding that the four players were dropped for failing to make a presentation on how to improve their personal as well as the team's performance after the innings and 135 runs defeat in the second Test in Hyderabad.
“Within hours, Watson, a frontline batsman and a good bowler who has failed during the tour so far, suddenly left for home, raising intense speculation of a revolt within the team. Though Cricket Australia denied that Watson's departure was a result of the decision and that he was heading home to be with his pregnant wife Lee Furlong, the cricketer himself came out with a contradictory version,” says the report.
According to another report, Watson was about to tell coach Mickey Arthur and captain Michael Clarke on Monday that he would have to miss the fourth Test in Delhi from March 22 to be home for the birth of his first child. "I was about to communicate that to Mickey and the leadership group today but they obviously beat me to it by telling me that I was not selected for this Test match," Watson said.
The 31-year-old Watson said that he was "absolutely shattered" to be axed from the team and would weigh up his future in Test cricket.
"Any time you are suspended for a Test match unless you do something unbelievably wrong, and absolutely everyone knows what those rules are - I think it is very harsh," Watson said, adding "I am at a stage where I am sort of weighing up my future and what I want to do with my cricket in general, to be honest," he said.
The sacking of the four players evoked sharp reactions from Australian greats like Shane Warne, Allan Border, Mark Waugh, Ian Chappell who ridiculed and strongly criticised the team management's decision. "I'm surprised that's the penalty for something so mundane. It seems like it was on a schoolboy tour or something. It's an over the top reaction," Border said.
