24 July,2009 08:15 AM IST | | A Correspondent
Australia's Mitchell johnson could do with some advice on family-bonding from the legend
Mitchell Johnson's problems are not only restricted to hitting the right areas against Andrew Strauss' Englishmen in this summer's Ashes series. Things are rocky on the home front too. It is learnt that the Queensland fast bowler is still reeling over his mother Vikki Harber's comments about being stolen away by his girlfriend Jessica Bratich. Harber and Mitchell's father Kevin separated when the pace bowler was nine.
Former Aussie captain Kim Hughes brought up the controversy yesterday by saying that Johnson's mother-related problems are affecting Australia's Ashes key in a large way.
Hughes may have not helped matters but Dennis Lillee, who clashed with Hughes several times when the two Western Australians were playing for Australia, did. According to Harber, it was bowling legend Lillee, who forced Mitchell to phone her and the young gun couldn't refuse. "Mitch texts me occasionally, but since he met this girl... he has not got much time for us," Harber was quoted as saying in the media recently.
Lillee knows how important it is for a sportsman to enjoy a good relationship with parents. In his book, My Life in Cricket, he wrote: "Dad and I have been mates to each other, rather than father and son." And Lillee fans will remember a photograph of him and his dad in the Lord's dressing room in 1975 with both beaming away. The young man's four-wicket haul against the Englishmen (before lunch) was made more special with the surprise visit of Lillee Sr.
Probably, Mitchell needs to have another chat to the legend. At least his comments will be more welcomed than Lillee's one-time cricket enemy Hughes.
