Cooldude
15 Mar 2006, 10:02
... on tour, if it has improved from those days at all.
Let's face it, apart from sub-continent tours, tours like South Africa, England and Carribbean are hell lot of fun. Players might stay 24/7 in hotels in Pakistan, but you can bet your bottom dollar that they won't be going back to the hotel anytime soon if they're in South Africa.
Wonder how much cover-up CA actually had done over the years when players have been badly behaved. There are lots of stuff these blokes get up to that we don't get to hear about.
How often does a player get his ass drunk at a club and get into some sorta a punchup because he's drunk or he tried to pick up someone else's chick and got his ass king hit, or cheat on their wives and girlfriends? Not that I care about their privacy, but I'd imagine a bunch of blokes representing their country can behave just a little better than that.
Are the Aus cricketers nowadays better behaved? Or are they just better at not getting caught?
Here's the article in question:
AUSSIE CRICKETERS LIVE IT UP IN WINDIES
While on the subject of Aussie cricketers, a subscriber who toured the West Indies in 1999 has sent through this account of some of the player antics he saw. We've withheld the author's name but rest assured it is not Sparkie.
The 1999 Australian tour of the West Indies produced a great series on the field, and various entertaining exploits off the field. I was spectator to some of these off field exploits in my stay at both Barbodos (3rd Test) and Antigua (4th Test).
I was not present on the other West Indian islands for either the first two tests, nor the One dayers post the completion of the 4th Test. What I witnessed did not necessarily surprise me, what did surprise me is how stupid/naive some of these cricketers were to display these antics in full public view.
What disappointed me is the amount of blackmail money I could have made by simply bringing a camera.
Most of the action occured at a Barbados nightclub (I can't recall the venue's name), post the completion of the 3rd test (which West Indies won by one wicket thanks to a memorable match winning second innings century by Brian Lara). Most of the Australian cricketers and some of the West Indian cricketers arrived at the Barbadian hotspot. The following is some highlights of the evening:
-Michael Slater was so drunk he could hardly stand, and in fact fell over three times (that I counted) due to the copious amounts of alcohol taken. He reminded me of those drunks you see constantly see falling over at Young & Jackson's.
-Shane Warne sitting at the bar with a lovely looking negro lady on his lap (I'm not sure how relaxed Simone is about Shane's relationships with the opposite sex, but if most wives walked into a nightclub and witnessed another woman on hubby's lap I tend to think the response would be unfavorable), and then later leaving together. Whilst people can only assume whether anything happened or not after they left, I suspect that they weren't going for a game of scrabble.
-Ricky Ponting interacting with an Australian cricket follower, and then minutes later arguing then pushing and shoving with that same individual. Other people then had to hold both of them back from punching each other. This occured about two metres from where I was standing and Punter was obviously intoxicated from the slurred jibes).
-Mark Waugh wandering around the nightclub (away from the Australian crowd and into the local Barbadian's area) seemingly intent on making his acquaintance with anyone from the opposite sex.
-Merv Hughes regularly drunk (both at the nightclub and at the cricket, in fact anywhere I saw him).
Antigua did not produce as much entertainment, but there were still some highlights as follows (Note - Both the Australian and West Indian cricketers were staying at the same resort as I in Antigua):
- Shane Warne walking with Mark Waugh along the beach (about 10 metres behind me) puffing away on a cigarette. What's the big deal you may ask? From memory, Shane was on a contract or a sponsorship like agreement which disallowed Warne smoking cigarettes for a certain period of time (this smoking incident definitely occured during the ban).
- Running into a married couple who were part of Merv Hughes cricket tours. According to this couple the first 2 or 3 days of partying are okay, but when you're constantly partying to all hours then having to get up early the same morning day after day, it begins to take it's toll. They described Merv as someone who is "extremely full on, does nothing but party and is extremely loud'. I subsequently ran into other members of Merv's cricket tours, there description of Merv is similar to the above.
- A funny incident involving Colin 'Funky' Miller at the Antiguan casino, when after the completion of the 4th test, a jovial Miller with glass of bourbon in one hand and smoke in the other hand was playing the pokies machines. A patron asked Funky for a light, only for Miller to respond (with bourbon and smoke in hand) 'Mate, can't you see I'm an elite athlete' to the laughs of the crowd. Needless to say Miller was only joking and happily lent the guy a light.
What's interesting also is in Steve Waugh's autobiography, he said he imposed some sorta a curfew or alcohol ban on that tour and he thought he was "betrayed" by a lot of his players including his brother, this seems to confirm he's correct, even though Ian Healy and the likes have denied it
Let's face it, apart from sub-continent tours, tours like South Africa, England and Carribbean are hell lot of fun. Players might stay 24/7 in hotels in Pakistan, but you can bet your bottom dollar that they won't be going back to the hotel anytime soon if they're in South Africa.
Wonder how much cover-up CA actually had done over the years when players have been badly behaved. There are lots of stuff these blokes get up to that we don't get to hear about.
How often does a player get his ass drunk at a club and get into some sorta a punchup because he's drunk or he tried to pick up someone else's chick and got his ass king hit, or cheat on their wives and girlfriends? Not that I care about their privacy, but I'd imagine a bunch of blokes representing their country can behave just a little better than that.
Are the Aus cricketers nowadays better behaved? Or are they just better at not getting caught?
Here's the article in question:
AUSSIE CRICKETERS LIVE IT UP IN WINDIES
While on the subject of Aussie cricketers, a subscriber who toured the West Indies in 1999 has sent through this account of some of the player antics he saw. We've withheld the author's name but rest assured it is not Sparkie.
The 1999 Australian tour of the West Indies produced a great series on the field, and various entertaining exploits off the field. I was spectator to some of these off field exploits in my stay at both Barbodos (3rd Test) and Antigua (4th Test).
I was not present on the other West Indian islands for either the first two tests, nor the One dayers post the completion of the 4th Test. What I witnessed did not necessarily surprise me, what did surprise me is how stupid/naive some of these cricketers were to display these antics in full public view.
What disappointed me is the amount of blackmail money I could have made by simply bringing a camera.
Most of the action occured at a Barbados nightclub (I can't recall the venue's name), post the completion of the 3rd test (which West Indies won by one wicket thanks to a memorable match winning second innings century by Brian Lara). Most of the Australian cricketers and some of the West Indian cricketers arrived at the Barbadian hotspot. The following is some highlights of the evening:
-Michael Slater was so drunk he could hardly stand, and in fact fell over three times (that I counted) due to the copious amounts of alcohol taken. He reminded me of those drunks you see constantly see falling over at Young & Jackson's.
-Shane Warne sitting at the bar with a lovely looking negro lady on his lap (I'm not sure how relaxed Simone is about Shane's relationships with the opposite sex, but if most wives walked into a nightclub and witnessed another woman on hubby's lap I tend to think the response would be unfavorable), and then later leaving together. Whilst people can only assume whether anything happened or not after they left, I suspect that they weren't going for a game of scrabble.
-Ricky Ponting interacting with an Australian cricket follower, and then minutes later arguing then pushing and shoving with that same individual. Other people then had to hold both of them back from punching each other. This occured about two metres from where I was standing and Punter was obviously intoxicated from the slurred jibes).
-Mark Waugh wandering around the nightclub (away from the Australian crowd and into the local Barbadian's area) seemingly intent on making his acquaintance with anyone from the opposite sex.
-Merv Hughes regularly drunk (both at the nightclub and at the cricket, in fact anywhere I saw him).
Antigua did not produce as much entertainment, but there were still some highlights as follows (Note - Both the Australian and West Indian cricketers were staying at the same resort as I in Antigua):
- Shane Warne walking with Mark Waugh along the beach (about 10 metres behind me) puffing away on a cigarette. What's the big deal you may ask? From memory, Shane was on a contract or a sponsorship like agreement which disallowed Warne smoking cigarettes for a certain period of time (this smoking incident definitely occured during the ban).
- Running into a married couple who were part of Merv Hughes cricket tours. According to this couple the first 2 or 3 days of partying are okay, but when you're constantly partying to all hours then having to get up early the same morning day after day, it begins to take it's toll. They described Merv as someone who is "extremely full on, does nothing but party and is extremely loud'. I subsequently ran into other members of Merv's cricket tours, there description of Merv is similar to the above.
- A funny incident involving Colin 'Funky' Miller at the Antiguan casino, when after the completion of the 4th test, a jovial Miller with glass of bourbon in one hand and smoke in the other hand was playing the pokies machines. A patron asked Funky for a light, only for Miller to respond (with bourbon and smoke in hand) 'Mate, can't you see I'm an elite athlete' to the laughs of the crowd. Needless to say Miller was only joking and happily lent the guy a light.
What's interesting also is in Steve Waugh's autobiography, he said he imposed some sorta a curfew or alcohol ban on that tour and he thought he was "betrayed" by a lot of his players including his brother, this seems to confirm he's correct, even though Ian Healy and the likes have denied it