Usman Khawaja faces punishment over Perth pitch tirade
As Cricket Australia officials fume over Usman Khawaja’s Perth pitch tirade, one word may be able to save the embattled opener from punishment.
“NO”.
It’s the single word lost in Usman Khawaja’s tirade about the first-day Perth wicket that could save him with Cricket Australia officials furious at his frank public assessment.
Interviewed on stage by Code Sports’ Robert Craddock at a lunch for his Usman Khawaja Foundation at the Queensland Cricketers’ Club on Friday, Khawaja was asked about the official match referee’s pitch rating in the context of the number of players hit on the body on the opening day in Perth.
After a long laugh, he shot back with the ironic: “Nineteen wickets on the first day and about 20 people got hit, that’s a great wicket - that seems real fair.”
But before the notorious “piece of s***” rating, Khawaja gave a time qualification on the pitch difficulty.
“Was it harder than it looked?” Craddock asked after Khawaja’s initial quip had an audience of about 150 corporates in stitches.
“No. The same thing happened last year in the Indian Test,” Khawaja said of the series opener in Perth last summer in which 17 wickets fell on day one, with India bowled out for 150 and Australia staggering at 7-67 at stumps in a match eventually won by the tourists after tea on day four.
“It’s just that day one wicket, the ball just does not react,” he said.
“Steve Smith’s by far the best cricketer I’ve ever played with and he’s missing the middle of his bat by a long way – he does not miss the middle of his bat. He’s getting hit in the elbow.”
He went on to describe the nature of the bounce on the opening day.
“A ball should be bouncing ‘there’,” he said, demonstrating to the audience. “It’s bouncing ‘that high’ (demonstrates again).
“You can’t really predict up and down. Up and down is the hardest - sideways is a little bit easier but up and down your hands can’t catch up.
“So day one wicket at (Perth) is a piece of s***, I’m happy to say that. It has been last year, it was this year.
“They do get better. Day two, day three – and then day four, they start to crack up and cure again.
“We know day two, day three is usually the best time to bat. So whenever we play in Perth, it’s one of the few places we win the toss and bat first hoping that we can bat again maybe (by) the end of day two and into day three.”
The blunt, if crass, assessment is a welcome analysis from an experienced player in a landscape where athletes are often condemned for being bland and safe.
And while it obviously differs from that of match referee Ranjan Madugalle’s rating of the Perth pitch as “very good”, it can’t be totally discounted.
Khawaja said if there was no day one, things would be different.
“If they can figure out a way to get rid of that first day – maybe it needs to rain or something happens so we don’t play the first day in Perth – but other than that, the wicket does improve.
“But I mean, I don’t think it was an exceptional wicket when you lose 19 wickets on the first day.”
Originally published as Usman Khawaja faces punishment over Perth pitch tirade
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