Michael Bevan Clears Air on Coaching Comments after Peter Siddle Slams Dual World Cup Winner
Sep 25, 2017 at 8:22 PM
After former Test cricketer and fast bowler, Peter Siddle lambasted dual World Cup winning player for Australia Michael Bevan, the latter has made a thorough clarification, in a bid to clear the air while revealing about his coaching tweet which didn’t sit well with Victorian.
Interestingly, Bevan is also the Level III High Performance as he has been part of the Tasmania in the domestic set-up and Siddle termed him best in business when the former was in his prime with the willow.
“The Australian one-day team have had a great record for a long time now. It really wasn’t my intention to have a go at anyone off the back of two bad games,” Bevan was quoted as saying by Cricket Australia.
The fast bowler Siddle believed, who represented Australia in 62 Tests, 17 ODIs and two Twenty20 internationals found Bevan was taking a pot-shot at the struggling national team which has now already lost the five-match One-day international series 3-0, with two to go in Bengaluru and Nagpur.
“He’s [Bevan] had 15 years to apply for a job with Cricket Australia and help out around the country and he hasn’t,” Siddle told Fox Sports earlier.
The former left-handed batsman Bevan has downplayed the allegations levelled by Siddle for using social media as a tool to discourage the side concurrently participating in the bilateral series in India and eventually impressing the Cricket Australia.
“There was no intention to link the Australia performances with the fact that I wanted to do the (batting coach) role,” Bevan maintained.
Bevan was one of the best players in the limited overs cricket during this international stint while donning Australian colours.
“Any player knows a couple of bad games doesn’t mean that much,” Bevan added.
While grabbing the headlines, Bevan was equally supported by World Cup-winning skipper Michael Clarke by saying “exactly what this team needs buddy”.
(Read Also: India vs Australia 3rd ODI: Five Talking Points)
The 47-year-old Belconnen-born Bevan on September 23 tweeted he is looking forward to helping the Kangaroos led by Steven Smith after visitors lost the second ODI by 50 runs at iconic Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
Into his defence, Bevan expressed a huge concern for the national side, as he believes the constructive criticism should not be taken as a direct strike on the players.
While expressing an intention to coach the team particularly in the 50-over format, Bevan reiterated his comment should not be taken in bad taste, adding he is looking forward to settling as a specialist rather taking up the top-brass role.
“It was never my intention to disrespect anyone, it was more just the fact that I’ve made the transition from a head coach to a specialist batting coach just recently and I just wanted to make it known I was happy to look for batting roles,” Bevan Concluded.
Following the unassailable lead at Holkar Stadium in Indore, struggling Australia would be aiming to salvage some pride to battle-it-out in the fourth ODI which is scheduled at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on September 28 (Thursday).
Here’re the Tweets from Bevan which drew a flak:
@CricketAus would love to be considered for the role of ODI batting coach -where do I apply?
— Michael Bevan (@mbevan12) September 22, 2017
Ps not saying aussies are crap. Great record over last couple years. Just saying I'm looking..
— Michael Bevan (@mbevan12) September 23, 2017