Pace legend Glenn McGrath feels sacked Australian cricket coach Mickey Arthur’s allegations of facing racial discrimination and having to deal with a divided team are “pretty poor” and show that he is “not too concerned” about the side he mentored.
Arthur has sued Cricket Australia claiming that his sacking smacked of racial bias and that he dealt with a team in which captain Michael Clarke and senior player Shane Watson were constantly at loggerheads. “I saw Shane Warne had said that Arthur’s comments showed he was not too concerned about Australian cricket. I don’t disagree with that. Each to their own. If that’s what he wants to do, that’s up to him. I feel very disappointed with it. And for it to come out now you do wonder if it was leaked intentionally,” he wrote in The Guardian.
McGrath, however, was of the view that the Aussies could turn the situation to their advantage by bouncing back in the ongoing Ashes series which they have started on a losing note. “...Potentially, it’s the sort of situation that could bring the squad together. Sometimes when things are happening outside the team, when forces are at work to try to break the team apart or cause issues, it can actually have a different effect - it can bring the boys closer together. They become more of a unit and they start to protect each other,” he explained.
“If it starts falling apart it doesn’t affect only one person on the team, it affects the whole team. It goes back to the old saying of ‘control the controllables’. You have no control over what’s being said out there, but what you do have control of is how you’re going to play in this Test,” he said. Recalling his own days in the Australian dressing room, McGrath said: “I’m really good mates with Shane Watson and Michael Clarke and despite what Mickey Arthur may claim I haven’t seen any problems between them at all.”