It’s a Mitch hunt!

Aus cricket is built on mythology as much as methodology The latter was evident recently when they defied the odds to steal the World Cup from under Indiarsquos noses but the latest brouhaha involving the ostracisation of Mitchell Johnson is yet another theft from the Indian playbookThe Aussies always laughed scornfully at Indiarsquos predilection for exacting a heavy price on anyone who dares to criticise the establishment But Mitchell Johnsonrsquos rapid descent from legend to pariah status is most unAustralianOr is itAlso ReadToo many cooks spoil the brothMateship and mythologyThe notion of mateship is tattooed into the mythology around the baggy green Itrsquos sacrosanct and apparently should never be betrayed even if it means crowded real estate atop Hypocrisy Hill So when do you stop being an exAustralian cricketer and become a journalist Are the two mutually exclusiveWhat Johnson has done is apparently beyond the pale In a monoculture that is pale male and stale from Boardroom to dressing room speaking frankly is severely discouraged Even as a journalist one is meant to remember onersquos roots and Johnson clearly forgot to read the memo For that sin he is likely to pay a heavier price of exclusion than the lsquoconvictedrsquo sinner himself David Warner who finishes his career under a Lifetime Leadership ban for his role in the Sandpaper Affair in Cape TownAlso ReadWPL 2024 likely to follow multicity format MumbaiBengaluru frontrunnersJohnson is merely saying what most Australians think but most Australians are not members of the exclusive baggy green club So even if he speaks the truth it remains a truth only to those proletariats outside the tent For the elite few who claim to be forever bonded by loyalty to each other through thick andthin through sandpaper Indian bookmakers mumrsquos diet pills and sexting skippers the truth is an inconvenient bully we all pretend to like with apologies to Shantaram the epic story anchored in MumbaiThe mixed messages would be hilarious if they werenrsquot offered with such serious faces George Bailey claims that form is the main selection criteria except that it isnrsquot Warnerrsquos recent Test match form makes a mockery of that They claim that the sins of Cape Town are long forgotten but Cameron Bancroft is still likely to live his career under the shadow of Table Mountain Brad Haddin says that personal attacks leave a bad taste in the mouth but was he not the same chap who sledged the Kiwis in the 2015 World Cup final because ldquothey were too nicerdquo Presumably his sledging was not lsquopersonalrsquo which then begs the obvious questionmdashisnrsquot the very definition of sledging personal in nature What would be the point of sledging if it wasnrsquot personalDifficult to forgive betrayalAustralians love to refer to passing or failing the lsquoPub Testrsquo when testing anything to see if it stacks up It is still bewildering that any serious issue is left to the sensibilities of inebriated people to pass judgment on but that is apparently the Australian way Most of the punters in the aforementioned pub think they know what happened in Cape Town and they think the plot involved a lot more than just Steve Smith Bancroft and Warner But what Johnson has done is to exhume corpses best left buried and thatrsquos caused a level of cognitive dissonance that has irked his former brothersinarms As he is about to discover Australian cricketers will forgive anything except betrayal from within Michael Clarke has felt the burn Ian Chappell before him but Johnson is about to be singed by the flames of guilty consciences that cannot abide a candle being held to the truthJohnson is not a PR mouthpiece He aspires to be a fearless journalist and writer but if he had only sought the wisdom of George Orwell who once famously said ldquojournalism is printing what someone else does not want printed everything else is public relationsrdquoMichael Jeh is a Brisbanebased former firstclass player