Anderson’s power struggle with Clarke could be decisive, claims rookie Bailey

 
PA
29 November 2013

The man Jimmy Anderson allegedly wanted to “punch in the face” believes the battle between the England bowler and Australia captain Michael Clarke could decide who wins the Ashes.

George Bailey’s altercation with Anderson in the closing overs of the First Test in Brisbane appeared to prompt Clarke’s warning to Anderson that he should “get ready for a broken f*****g arm”.

Clarke also walked up to Anderson and was seen to jab his finger towards the batsman’s face — a rare gesture indeed in cricket. Clarke’s words were picked up on the stump microphone and he was fined £1,700 by the International Cricket Council.

England declined to comment on the allegations about Anderson, which were first aired by former Aussie leg-spinner Shane Warne on Twitter. Bailey, who made his Test debut at the Gabba, was unworried by his spat with the England paceman but sees the battle between Anderson and Clarke as potentially decisive in the series.

It is apparent that the pair have little time for one another, and Bailey said: “They’re both very good players and both probably two of the most important for each of the teams.

“So in terms of their own battle in the middle, that’s a really important one in the series. There’s normally been a bit of niggle for a number of years between those two to try and get that upper hand. I don’t think it should be looked at as one incident. I reckon both have a huge amount of respect for each other for the way they play the game.”

That is a moot point. In his autobiography, Anderson described an incident where he struck Clarke over the head with a pad in the Australian dressing room after the Adelaide Test in the 2006-07 series.

And after Clarke observed in his diary of last summer’s Ashes series that Anderson had not spoken to him during the campaign, Anderson wondered whether the Aussie captain was “paranoid”.

Even before their contretemps at the end in Brisbane, Anderson and Clarke had been winding each other up, especially when Clarke was batting.

Bailey echoed the opinions of his team-mates when he said he expected the verbal battles to carry on during next week’s Second Test at Adelaide. “There’s always communication out on the field and I think it’s one of the real keys to try and find a way to make a batsman lose his concentration,” he said. “Certainly that will continue, no doubt.”

Gary Ballance hopes to make his Test debut for England in that game and helped his cause with 55 in the tour match against a Cricket Australia Chairman’s XI here in Alice Springs today.

“I’ve given myself a bit of confidence with this innings and if I do get picked, I think I’ll be ready,” he said.

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