Watson walks out on India tour

Howard says Clarke, Watson must hammer out issues.

Australian vice-captain Shane Watson has walked out of the tour of India and is considering quitting cricket. Source: The Mercury

Australian captain Michael Clarke has strongly defended the decision to suspend four players.

Australian Test vice-captain Shane Watson leaving the team hotel in India last night following his sensational axing from the third Test. Picture: Peter Badel Source: The Courier-Mail

UPDATE: AUSTRALIAN cricket team performance boss Pat Howard has declared Shane Watson to be a team player only ''sometimes''.

Asked specifically this afternoon whether the exiled Watson was a team player, Howard replied: ''I know Shane reasonably well - I think he acts in the best interests of the team - sometimes.

''Look, cricket is interesting like this and there is obviously individual aspects. That is a hard one to measure.

''I'm not going to get drawn into that anymore. That is probably a better one for the players in the team to judge.''

James Pattinson says he deserved his punishment

Howard also hinted at deeper personality conflicts between Test captain Michael Clarke and his sacked deputy Watson.

"They have normal difficulties that anybody has in a relationship and the reality is Michael is a strong driver and Shane and Michael have had 18 months together to work on that,'' Howard said.

"The captain and the vice-captain have got to sort their issues out. And if Michael wants to raise that as a greater issue, then he can come forward.''

In one of the most dramatic days in Australian cricket history, coach Mickey Arthur dropped a bombshell on the team yesterday by dumping Watson, Mitchell Johnson, James Pattinson and Usman Khawaja.

Watson's future is now in limbo after the Australian vice-captain quit the tour of India and is considering retiring from international cricket.

During a stop-over in Singapore this evening, Watson spoke briefly with Channel Nine, confirming he had not been sent home but rather "was going home to see my wife who's having a baby".

Howard addressed the sackings this afternoon, saying the quartet's failure to respond to a peer review of the side's dismal performance in the second Test was the latest in a list of misdemeanours by the Australian players.

He said this was Cricket Australia's "line in the sand" and that the player had received plenty of warnings.

"We have been dealing with small issues ... You can only get your last chance so many times," Howard said.

"This is the straw that broke the camel's back. At some stage unfortunately you've got to make a call.

"There were plenty of warnings."

Craddock: Everyone knows Clarke, Watson aren't compatible.

Howard would not go into detail about what the other player indiscretions were but said CA would not take a situation as "trivial as this in isolation" and deal such a harsh punishment to the players.

He said there had been many examples of players not doing what they've been asked to do, whether that be for the coaches, the selectors right down to PR requirements.

"The message here is we're trying to lift the level overall," Howard added.

"It is a strong statement. We absolutely understand that there will be some people against it."

Howard made it clear that Watson and all of the players disciplined were welcome back to the Australian set-up.

"The door is open to anyone that wants to come back," he said. The standards are the standards of the team, regardless of who the person is."

The team was rocked by a second ruction late last night, with Watson deciding to leave India to be with wife Lee, who is heavily pregnant and due to give birth.

'He doesn't have to play for Australia to keep playing cricket'

Speaking this morning, Shane's father Bob told The Courier-Mail his son may not need a baggy green cap to keep playing cricket and earning a lucrative living.

''Playing Test cricket for Australia is the ultimate thing ... but if it comes down to it he is pretty good at Twenty20 cricket and the Indian Premier League,'' Bob Watson said.

"He doesn't have to play for Australia to keep playing cricket and earning some pretty good money at the same time. I am not sure whether it has got to that stage yet.

''If he goes true to form, he will ask my opinion and if and when he does I will tell him what I think.''

Bob Watson, a retiree who lives at Ipswich west of Brisbane, said he is yet to hear from his son since his stunning axing from the Test side.

''I only heard about this last night like everyone else and I am pretty mystified,'' Watson said.

Do your homework says AFL star

And Watson said his son had not given him any indication about a possible souring of relations with Test captain Michael Clarke that may have been one of the reasons for drama in the Test team.

''Everyone has their little bitches about things, but him and Clarkey seemed to be getting on pretty well,'' Bob Watson said.

''Before Shane left for India there did not seem to be much of a problem.'' 

Meanwhile, Khawaja's manager Zammit said cricket as a whole needed to following the professionalism displayed in the NRL and AFL.

"Cricket is still stuck in the 1960s," Zammit said on 2GB this morning. "I dare a young rugby league player to say `I forgot' (to do my homework). Hell and damnation would come down on their heads."

"(But) cricket is different, you're pushing against the ocean. (Professional cricketers) have been taught from a very young age they are special.

"The entire cricket universe is soft in the belly compared to other sports."

'There are more important things in my life'

Watson had hinted in January he might have to go home early for the birth but has been left gutted by the circumstances surrounding his axing - to the point where he is now contemplating walking away from the game.

"I am going to spend the next few weeks with my family and weigh up my options as to exactly which direction I want to go," he said.

"There are a lot more important things in life. I do love playing cricket and that passion is still there and I feel I am in the prime years of my cricket career.

"But in the end I have got to live with this. That is the decision they have made and at this point in time I am at a stage where I have to weigh up my future with what I want to do with my cricket in general to be honest."

MICHAEL CLARKE WRITES:  STANDARDS  MUST BE KEPT

Watson made a hasty exit from the team hotel last night dressed in a black suit. He believes the decision to dump the quartet was heavy handed.

"I am excited about the birth, but I'm absolutely shattered," he said.

"Any time you're suspended for a Test match unless you do something unbelievably wrong, and obviously everyone knows what those rules are . . . I think it is very harsh."

The 16-man touring party was asked to complete a personal review of the team's culture and expectations and the improvements needed to be made for the third Test starting onThursday.

Watson, Pattinson, Khawaja and Johnson failed to submit a personal analysis - prompting team hierarchy, with the support of skipper Michael Clarke, to immediately rule the group out for the Test in Mohali.

Australian coach Mickey Arthur explains the reasons for dropping vice-captain Shane Watson, James Pattinson, Mitchell Johnson and Usman Khawaja.

Arthur said it was the toughest day of his coaching career, but a step necessary in team hierarchy's goal to make Australia the No.1 Test side in world cricket.

While Pattinson, Khawaja and Johnson will be considered for the fourth Test in Delhi, Arthur said the decision was a "line in the sand" for Australian cricket.

"They are absolutely gutted, as I was having to deliver a message like that," he said.

"We were all gutted by it, but this is the expectation if you want to play cricket for Australia.

"This is a line-in-the-sand moment.

"This has been the toughest decision that myself, (team) manager Gavin Dovey and captain Michael Clarke have ever had to make.

"Its a tough, tough decision, but the ramifications for that within our team's structure and the message that it sends to all involved in Australian cricket is that we are pretty serious about where we want to take this team.

Former Aussie Test cricketer Mark Waugh says Mickey Arthur's decision to stand down four players is unprecedented and stunned him.

Arthur said the players were given five days to submit a personal critique of improvements to be made to the side with a deadline of Saturday.

Many players delivered presentations in Arthur's room, while others provided feedback in email form.It is understood Watson and Pattinson planned to see Arthur yesterday. The coach said Khawaja and Johnson simply forgot to provide feedback.

"I asked the players at the end of the game to give me an individual presentation," Arthur said.

"I wanted three points from each of them technically, mentally and team as to how we were going to get back over the next couple of games, how we were going to get ourselves back into the series.

SACKINGS WILL HURT TEAM: CHAPPELL

"We have given these guys absolute clarity, we have given this team a huge amount of time to buy in with what we want to do for the Australian cricket team.

"We have given a vision to these guys that is spelt out, weve given an expectation that is spelt out and although this incident might seem very small in isolation this is a line-in-the-sand moment for us as a unit in our quest to become the best in the world.

"If I have to be honest we have looked through the last year. 'Pup' (Clarke) and I have been immensely focused on winning cricket games.

"Perhaps the one percenters have slipped and irrespective of who the personnel, we have made a massive statement to everybody out there that we are pretty damn serious about what we want to do."

Former Test skipper Allan Border questions the severity of dumping Shane Watson, Mitchell Johnson, James Pattinson and Usman Khawaja, likening it to a "schoolboy tour."

The fallout is particularly severe for Watson, who is the Australian vice-captain and has been under pressure after a poor run of form at Test level in the past 18 months.

"It's extremely tough to sit here and make that decision. I wish it wasn't the vice captain," Arthur said.

"I wish it wasn't Shane Watson and Mitchell Johnson, they are leaders within the team and are very professional with the way they go about their business.

But this was a moment where we had to make a statement irrespective of who the players were.

"I wanted to make sure the players went back and reflected and looked themselves in the mirror and said, 'This is what I want to do to take this team forward'.

"As severe as a consequence it is, if we remove the names, it sends a proper statement of what we want to do with this cricket team."

Shane Watson, James Pattinson, Mitchell Johnson and Usman Khawaja have all been axed from the third Test against India in Mohali. Source:

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