Simon Katich isn’t happy with former Australian Test captain Michael Clarke’s comments surrounding the state of the current team.
Clarke told Macquarie Sports Radio yesterday that Australian cricket needs to embrace being disliked.
"You don’t need to be best mates with everyone. Australian cricket, I think, needs to stop worrying about being liked and start worrying about being respected," Clarke said.
"Play tough Australian cricket. Because whether we like it or not, that’s in our blood.
"If you try and walk away from it, we might be the most liked team in the world, we’re not going to win sh--. We won’t win a game. Boys and girls want to win."
Katich believes Clarke isn’t seeing the real issue.
“Once again we find someone missing the point,” Katich told SEN’s Whateley.
“What’s been forgotten in all of this is we blatantly cheated and the the reason we’re at this point now, and what led us to this point, and we talk about the line that was talked about for so long.
“The point is, we were caught for blatantly cheating and we have to rectify that as soon as possible to earn back the respect of the cricketing public in Australia and worldwide.
“We’ve been a disliked team for a number of years through that on-field behaviour and it obviously came to a head in Cape Town.
“It’s a tough battle for this team taking on the burden of what’s come before them.
“They can still play the Australian way in terms of playing competitive and playing fairly, but not going over the top and going across the rules like they did in Cape Town.”
Gerard Whateley was equally unfavourable towards Clarke’s comments.
“It is possible to be both competitive and respected without being despised,” he said.
“I do feel like there’s a cabal of former players who don’t recognize any of what’s taken place over the last nine months or the consequences of it.
“As Australia loses, they’ll drive this back to you’re playing namby-pamby cricket.”