By Megan Levy
- Watson may quit Test cricket over axe
- Players have only themselves to blame
- Clarke says axings due to slide in attitude
- Pom's gloat as team becomes 'laughing stock'
- Arthur's decision makes sense
- Poll: was punishment too harsh?
"Pup ate my homework".
Cricketer Shane Watson had the perfect excuse to give Australia's selectors, according to some online jokesters, when he was in effect sent to stand in the corner with his hands on his head for not completing his cricket "homework" in India overnight.
The gags are flowing thick and fast on social media after it was announced that Watson and three other members of Australia's floundering cricketing team - Mitchell Johnson, James Pattinson and Usman Khawaja - would be stood down for Thursday's third Test for a breach of team discipline.
The quartet had failed to complete written "homework", set by head coach Mickey Arthur, to deliver a presentation, by email or in person, on what they brought to the team in the wake of last week's embarrassing defeat in Hyderabad.
Ridiculed ... this Bart Simpson meme was sent around on Twitter.
The move was supported by Australian captain Michael "Pup" Clarke, but has become a laughing stock on social media, where the homework debacle has been given the online spoofing treatment.
No longer the baggy greens, Australia's cricketers are being portrayed to as the saggy greens.
In one image doing the rounds, Shane Watson is pictured sitting despondently at a desk in a school uniform, grasping a pencil with his head in his hands.
"Homework due Saturday," says a note on the blackboard behind him.
Shane Watson has borne the brunt of the criticism,
Bart Simpson's famous blackboard gag, which features in the opening credits of each show, has been altered to repeatedly say: "I will not question Michael Clarke's authority".
Also creating debate online is what form the cricketer's homework was meant to have taken. Were they meant to do a speech? Maybe a PowerPoint presentation?
A different kind of power point presentation.
"Clearly only one man can save Australian cricket... Robert Gaskins, the inventor of Microsoft Powerpoint," tweeted David Tossell (@David-Tossell).
Former England skipper Michael Vaughan tweeted an image of a man he described as "Australia's new number 3": Bill Gates. The billionaire Microsoft founder is shown pointing to a screen which says: "Why I Should Be The Australian Cricket Team's Powerpoint Coach".
London's the Daily Mail didn't hold back in its criticisms.
Poor Shane Watson has already copped it in the English press, where former English swing bowler Matthew Hoggard said he wasn't the "sharpest tool in the shed".
"Getting him to write things out and put them in front of the coach is not going to be his strong point," he told the BBC.
Bill Gates meme ... the Australian team has been generating fierce debate on social media.
One Twitter user, Luke Salmon (@aussalmon), has gone further, claiming Watson was dropped for submitting as his PowerPoint presentation a photograph of a power point.
An imaginary letter said to have been written by Johnson in messy schoolboy scrawl is also doing the rounds on Twitter.
Social media users mocked Mitchell Johnson.
"Dear Mick, I reckon we need 2 Fix 3 Fings. 1. Make sum more Runz," it begins.
Perhaps the quartet should have looked to cricketing heroes of yesteryear for some guidance and inspiration, tweeted Channel Nine reporter Tom Steinfort (@tomsteinfort).
Memes ... the team has been mocked on social media.
"David Boon has released his own PowerPoint presentation, showing what the Australian cricket team needs to improve," he tweeted, alongside an image of cans of VB beer.
London's Daily Mail, licking its lips at the prospect of an Ashes showdown this year, has done its own homework. "Check out our three-point presentation, Mickey," it reads.
Alongside three images of Shane Watson, Peter Siddle and Mitchell Johnson is the caption: "Can't bat ... Can't bowl ... Can't catch!"