Candice Warner act crossed a line before Mitchell Johnsons attack on husband, Michael Clarke says

Michael Clarke says the public nature of the feud between David Warner and former teammate Mitchell Johnson is “too much”.

Australian cricket is still reeling from the bomb Johnson dropped the week before the First Test against Pakistan when he called for Warner to be denied a “hero’s farewell”.

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Johnson stunned the cricket world – and the Aussie playing fraternity – when he targeted the opening batsman and national team selector George Bailey in a column for The West Australian.

The former fast bowler revealed the column was spurred in part by a text Warner sent him after he described his wife Candice as “weird and cringey” when she attempted to defend his place in the Australian team during a TV appearance.

Speaking on The Mitchell Johnson Cricket Show podcast, the 313-Test wicket-taking great on Tuesday revealed his relationship with Warner went pear-shaped after a similarly-pointed column he wrote in The West Australian in April when he suggested the opening batter didn’t deserve to be selected for this year’s Ashes Tour

He said Warner sent him a text message after that column was published and said what Warner wrote in the message was “disappointing” and “pretty bad”.

Clarke has now claimed both Candice and Johnson broke his personal unwritten rule about keeping family members out of any war of words between teammates or opposition players.

He noted Candice’s defence of her husband on Fox Sports’ Back Page where she suggested Johnson was using her husband’s name to get a headline, was one example.

“I don’t like seeing families involved,” Clarke said on Sky Sports Radio’s Big Sports Breakfast on Wednesday.

He went on to say: “When a parent, when a friend, when a partner gets involved, I don’t like that.

“I don’t like anyone talking about someone’s family or someone else’s partner – and I’m not having a go at Mitch, I’m not having a go at Candice, I’m not having a go at David — it’s just too much.”

He suggested from his own experience that playing it out publicly was not something Johnson and Candice should have done.

“If I get dropped and my dad comes out and says, ‘What a shit selection’. I know he’s only looking after his son, but dad, mate, that’s not helping anyone,” Clarke said.

“He can say it to me, say it to mum, say it to my sisters, say it to our friends at the pub, but you don’t need to be saying that stuff in the media.

“I don’t mind players having disagreements and not talking and I don’t mind seeing players see life differently and going separate ways.

“You’d love everyone to be friends, but that’s not the case. I don’t like seeing families involved. It’s too personal for me.”

Former Test cricketer Simon O’Donnell also said he didn’t like the fact it has played out so publicly when speaking on SEN Breakfast on Wednesday.

“You don’t air your laundry in public,” he said.

Clarke said it is commonplace for players in the dressing room not to see eye to eye — like in any workplace — and would still be comfortable if the former teammates were unable to patch their relationship back together. Shane Warne and Steve Waugh famously never got on during or after their cricket careers ended.

Johnson also got personal with former Test player, turned national selector, Bailey when he suggested he had lost the ability to make the right call on Warner’s place in the team because he is too close to senior members of the squad.

Bailey publicly responded to Johnson’s criticism by saying: “I hope he’s OK.”

Johnson followed that up with another backhand.

“To ask if I’m OK (by George Bailey) because I’ve had mental health issues is pretty much downplaying my article and putting it on mental health, which is quite disgusting,’’ Johnson said.

Clarke is still holding out hope all the parties will be able to work it out.

“It sounds like, from what we’ve been reading there’s some beef there, but I’d love to see them, just away from the world and sit together,” he said.

“Have a coffee together. Or just have a phone conversation. No matter what it is, you’d like to think it could be fixed.

“Sometimes it’s not possible. Sometimes you try your best and the other person doesn’t want that and you have to accept that. If that’s the way Mitch feels about Davey and George then that’s OK as well. Mitch has got his own life, his wife and his kids. His job.”

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Meanwhile, Former Australian wicketkeeper Brad Haddin on Tuesday told the Willow Talk podcast: “It looked like a bit of an aggressive attack on Davey’s personality, which I don’t think you need.

“Yes, you can have an opinion on what you think the team should be, but I don’t like when past players go really hard in a personal angle to the players and it felt a little bit like that to me.”

Haddin went on to say: “He attacked David and George on levels you don’t want to see anywhere, to be honest. It left a bit of a bad taste in a few people’s mouths, I think.”

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