Cricket Update: Clarke and Hughes defend themselves after photographs emerged that show them drinking before Ashes loss
Australia’s stand-in captain Michael Clarke defended himself after his photographs emerged along with opening batsman Philip Hughes drinking on the eve of their humiliating Ashes series defeat.
“There’s no doubt Philip and I went to a restaurant bar, we had dinner there, I had two drinks and didn’t have a late night at all,” http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Clarke-c51120 said.
Just last week, Cricket Australia’s chief executive James Sutherland blasted the two player’s decision to attend functions on the morning of Ashes Test. There were conflicting reports that the pair attended Shane Warne Foundation breakfast on Boxing Day
and then they were interviewed at Melbourne’s Crown Casino, before returning to the team hotel.
Sutherland bemoaned that the pair made a “supreme error of judgement” when http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 slumped to 98 all out in their first innings on that morning. The series that was levelled at 1-1 saw England dominating after Australia failed to recover from that point
onwards. Andrew Strauss and his men not only retained the urn at Melbourne but went on to win the Ashes title in Sydney.
There were also reports that the stand-in captain attended breakfast functions before the Sydney Test, however Clarke dismissed the reports.
There were witnesses that claimed to have seen the Australian cricketers at a Melbourne bar well late into the night. A photograph showed the players posing with fans at the World Restaurant and Bar in Southbank. It was taken almost 12 hours before the Australian
team took the field at the MCG on the final day of the Boxing Day Test.
A witness named Paul told a local radio channel that he left the bar around 11:30 pm and the players were “well and truly going at that stage.”
Paul claimed that he asked Hughes as to why he was out of town and he replied
“the game was over, done the job and it was time to get on it.”
Paul reckoned that the players’ attitude showed that they were heart-broken however, they did not wanted to fight on the last day.
“He basically told me that he was there to take the cash, that’s why he was there,” the witness claimed.
Paul is the second witness to recall the incident. A Melbourne-based Englishwoman Emily Goodyear also claimed that the duo seemed to have no regrets and complained about their “boring team-mates” who refused to accompany them to the pub.
The woman claimed that she has pictures and offered to strike a deal with the media in return of cash.
Whereas, Clarke admitted that the two players had been posing for photos but he can “guarantee” that it wasn’t late.
Cricket Australia denied commenting on the photographs but the General Manager of public affairs, Peter Young said that it is “unrealistic” to expect the players to be in a hotel room all day long.
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