{"id":351307,"date":"2023-12-04T00:19:28","date_gmt":"2023-12-04T01:19:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=351307"},"modified":"2023-12-04T02:02:48","modified_gmt":"2023-12-04T02:02:48","slug":"simmering-state-feud-that-could-derail-aussie-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=351307","title":{"rendered":"Simmering state feud that could derail Aussie summer"},"content":{"rendered":"

The start to last summer's Test cricket<\/a> season was awkward, for the fact the men's team played in Perth for the first time since Justin Langer<\/a>'s ugly exit as head coach.<\/p>\n

And if anyone thought this year's trip to the Western Australia capital was going to be any less testy, Mitchell Johnson<\/a> has assured that won't be the case.<\/p>\n

Langer is a local hero in WA and the way he was ousted from the men's national team\ufeff rankled the state more than any other around the country.<\/p>\n

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In the wake of Langer's exit, Johnson penned a column for a prominent newspaper calling Test captain Pat Cummins "gutless"<\/a> and lambasting the players for not standing behind their coach.<\/p>\n

\ufeffWhile the bitterness from Langer's treatment has mostly dissipated, Johnson has now lit another fire by taking aim at veteran opener David Warner<\/a>, again in a newspaper column over the weekend.<\/p>\n

\"Mitchell<\/p>\n

Warner has promised to retire from Test cricket following the series against Pakistan, which concludes in January. On Sunday he was picked in a 14-man squad for the series, which starts December 14.<\/p>\n

"Does this really warrant a swansong, a last hurrah against Pakistan that was forecast a year in advance as if he was bigger than the game and the Australian cricket team?" wrote Johnson.<\/p>\n

"It's been five years and Warner has still never really owned the ball-tampering scandal.<\/p>\n

"Now the way he is going out is underpinned by more of the same arrogance and disrespect to our country."\ufeff<\/p>\n

Johnson went as far as to suggest fans will "honour" Warner's career by bringing sandpaper to the SCG – a reference to the infamous 2018 Cape Town scandal that brought Australian cricket to its knees, which Warner was at the centre of.<\/p>\n

Warner, like Cummins, is a Sydney boy, and at the BBL launch on Monday it was suggested to Perth paceman Lance Morris that Johnson's latest column is a reignition of the Langer feud.<\/p>\n

\ufeff"Hopefully not, just put it to rest, that'd be ideal," Morris told media.<\/p>\n

\"Bailey's<\/p>\n

If Johnson's vitriol does not stem from the Langer saga, it's hard to pinpoint where his feelings towards Warner deteriorated so badly.<\/p>\n

The pair played side by side in the Australian team for half a decade, before Johnson's retirement in 2015.<\/p>\n

\ufeffThere was some beef between Johnson and Warner's wife, Candice, earlier this year when the former questioned the batter's place in the Test side.<\/p>\n

To be fair, all and sundry had been questioning Warner's position in the team, given his form had been fairly dire for the better part of three years. Johnson was hardly alone, but his punditry did get personal when – once again – he bashed out a column for the Perth paper.<\/p>\n

"Warner even had his wife Candice defending him in her panel role on the TV show this week," he wrote at the time.<\/p>\n

\"David<\/p>\n

"Her loyalty might be admirable but it was all a bit weird and cringey\ufeff."<\/p>\n

That prompted Candice to hit back, telling News Corp, "It doesn't surprise me because he doesn't have a lot to do with media anymore and I feel like the only way he gets a headline is by using David's name. Everyone takes his comments with a grain of salt. They don't have a lot of merit."\ufeff<\/p>\n

Whether this latest attack on Warner is simply the next chapter in that war of words, it's hard to say.<\/p>\n

Michael Clarke – who captained the team when Johnson and Warner played together – has no idea where the bad blood has stemmed from.<\/p>\n

"Mitch hasn't played for years now so maybe there is beef, I don't know," Clarke said on Sky Sports Radio's The<\/em> Big Sports Breakfast<\/em> on Monday.<\/p>\n

"When you're in a (media) role like this … if you have an opinion and it's based on what's best for the team, or your experience, then go with that.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"But it should never be personal. I try not to make it personal and if it comes across that way you try and apologise for that because you don't want that.<\/p>\n

"Dave is a strong character, Mitch is a strong character, (they) went hard at each other in the nets.<\/p>\n

"I saw that but I couldn't sit here and say they had beef against one another when we played."<\/p>\n

Johnson will almost certainly be on hand at the Perth Test in one of his various media roles.<\/p>\n

Whether he seeks out Warner for an interview will be one to keep an eye on.\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The start to last summer's Test cricket season was awkward, for the fact the men's team played in Perth for the first time since Justin […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":351309,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351307"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=351307"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":351314,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351307\/revisions\/351314"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/351309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=351307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=351307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=351307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}