TOXIC TEAM

Johnson is latest Australian to blast ex-skipper Clarke

MICHAEL Clarke’s time as Australia captain has come in for further criticism after his former team-mate Mitchell Johnson described a ‘toxic’ atmosphere within the team under his leadership.

Johnson also claimed that some players did not want to play for Australia under Clarke, who retired from international cricket after losing the Ashes last year.

The 73-Test quick, who was one of four players banned amid the ‘Homework-gate’ saga during the ill-fated tour of India in 2013, suggested the Australian team became fractured after Clarke took over the Test captaincy from Ricky Ponting in 2011.

‘The dynamics definitely changed,’ Johnson said in an interview yesterday.

‘It wasn’t a team. There were different little factions going on and it was very toxic.

‘It just built very slowly but everyone could see it, everyone could feel it and nothing was being done at that time.

‘So it wasn’t a very enjoyable place to be and you’re supposed to be enjoying yourself when you’re playing for your country.

‘It was a pretty bad experience, bad time, a couple of us didn’t want to play.

‘Even some of the young guys coming through could see it a mile away and they didn’t enjoy it, they said: “State cricket’s so much more fun”.’

Johnson (right) revealed his own relationship with Clarke (far right) had been tarnished after his ban for failing to do his homework during the 2013 India tour.

‘I didn’t take it too well,’ he continued. ‘I guess the relationship was pretty strained at that point of time within the team — I definitely felt like an outsider.’

Johnson is the latest on a growing list of Clarke’s former Australia teammates to hit out at his leadership following the release of the 35year-old’s biography earlier this month.

While publicising the book, Clarke admitted in a television interview that the behaviour of some players during the 2013 tour of England was ‘like a tumour’.

Australia coach Mickey Arthur was sacked just days before that Ashes series, and in subsequent legal documents it was reported he had claimed Clarke had described his former vice-captain Shane Watson as a ‘cancer’ on the team. ‘For me, I think it was more a reflection of the person he is more than what it was directed towards me,’ Watson said last week. ‘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.’ Former opener Simon Katich also cast doubt on some of Clarke’s claims about their well-publicised dressing-room altercation at the SCG in 2009, saying that he was ‘obviously trying to sell a book’. Clarke did enjoy seminal moments of success as Australia captain, most significantly the 2013-14 Ashes whitewash — when Johnson was the star turn — while he also led the 2015 World Cup success. On both occasions his vicecaptain was Brad Haddin, who backed Clarke’s leadership in a column this week, writing: ‘Watson had a difficult time as Michael’s deputy because they did not have the same open relationship to discuss things that I was fortunate enough to have. ‘Michael was a very good tactical captain who was always in control on the field.’ Meanwhile, Zafar Ansari will make his England Test debut against Bangladesh in Dhaka today. The bowler, who was left out of the opener in Chittagong despite taking four for 68 in the second warm-up game, will replace Surrey team-mate Gareth Batty in the line-up.