Stuart Broad has backed his England teammate Ollie Robinson after he was slammed by Matthew Hayden and Ricky Ponting for sledging Australia’s Usman Khawaja during the first Ashes 2023 Test at Edgbaston.
Robinson had given a filth-laden send-off to Khawaja after he had dismissed him in Australia‘s first innings after his splendid century. Things got a bit more heated when Robinson had another go at Khawaja in the second innings before the umpires and James Anderson intervened.
Robinson went on to explain in a Daily Mail column that he afterwards talked to Khawaja and cleared the air with him. He claimed that the Australian opener advised him to watch what he said and that they had a good conversation.
However, his gestures and words were not appreciated by the Australian media and former Kangaroos cricketers with legends like Ricky Ponting and Matthew Hayden heavily criticizing the English pacer.
However, now Stuart Broad has come to the defense of his teammate and said that the issue has been stretched more than it should’ve been.
“A lot more has been made of words on the field between Ollie Robinson and Usman Khawaja than ought to have been, to be honest. Ultimately, the ICC had no problem with Ollie’s reaction to dismissing Khawaja in the first innings and I didn’t like Matthew Hayden’s disparaging comments about him.
Ollie averages 21 with the ball in Test cricket over a decent amount of time and bowls in a very similar way to Glenn McGrath. Yes, there was a bit of emotion on the field, but off it we are seeing the Australian guys in the pavilion corridors all the time, eating lunch in the same room and we enjoyed a nice-natured week,” he wrote in his column for the Daily Mail.
“Now a couple of expletives the other way and everyone is piling in. Where are we going with this?” he added.
Ricky Ponting had said some strong words after Robinson had taken his name in his writeup while explaining his side of things.
And now Broad has said that the former Australian captain was a big “sledger” but Robinson didn't mean to direct aim at Ponting.
"Ricky Ponting had a bit of a nibble because Robbo brought his name into things during a press conference, but not because Ricky was a huge sledger. Ollie had a bit of a mind blank, Ricky Ponting was the most famous ex-Aussie cricketer he could think of, and that Australia team he played in was hardly full of shrinking violets, so the hoo-ha that was created surprised us.
I’m sure it’ll die down pretty quickly, though, because with the teams getting on so well it’s a little bit of an irrelevance,” wrote Broad.
(Hindustan Times inputs)
