Disappointing that things start to come out two-three years after retirement: Shane Watson

Michael Clarke has revealed some bitter truth about the Australian dressing room. The attention has now been refocused on his 2013 controversy where he had a fallout with several cricketers including Watson during the Ashes tour. In his autobiography that has grabbed the headlines recently, Clarke described the group of players as “like a tumour and if we don’t fix it, it’s going to turn into a cancer”.

Watson said the comments revealed more about Clarke than anything else. Speaking at an event in Melbourne on Tuesday, the retired all-rounder and former team vice-captain said he wanted to put the altercation behind him.

“In the end, it is really disappointing that things like that start to come out two or three years later on when we are all very content in retirement,” Watson said.

The incident between Clarke and Shane Watson was part of the “homework” saga, when Watson was one of four players sent home from a Test match in India for not completing a task set for them by the coach.According to leaked court documents, sacked coach Mickey Arthur claimed he was caught up in a row in which Clarke called Watson “a cancer” on the national side.

In an interview earlier this week, Clarke clarified his view on those events.

“No, I didn’t say that,” Clarke said. “I said that there is a number of players or a group in this team at the moment that are like a tumour, and if we don’t fix it, it’s going to turn into cancer.”

Asked if that applied to Shane Watson, Clarke replied: “Shane was one of those players, yes.”