5 occasions when two star players had a difficult relationship

As an international cricketer you live an exciting lifestyle, travelling all around the world for various competitions. Unfortunately for some players, this also means spending a lot of time with your teammates at close quarters.This high pressure environment has gotten the better of many a man, as throughout history there has been countless occasions of big-name players butting heads. From dressing room scuffles to on-field spats, here are 5 examples of when two star teammates had a difficult relationship.

#5 Shane Watson & Michael Clarke

Best of enemies: Clarke and Watson

While Shane Watson and Michael Clarke have never been the best of friends, there’s always been a mutual respect for one another. However, this respect was pushed to its absolute limits on Australia’s 2013 tour of India, after the infamous “homework-gate” scandal, where Watson and teammates Mitchell Johnson, James Pattinson and Usman Khawaja failed to hand in a team assignment.

Watson was particularly lambasted following this, and Clarke was among the main people to sink the boot into his vice-captain.

After being banned for one game after his indiscretion, Watson returned home to Australia for the birth of his first child and was reportedly contemplating retirement after the drama that had occurred. Watson ended up returning to the Test team for the fourth Test, and funnily enough, ended up replacing Clarke as captain due to his withdrawal through injury.

After this ugly scenario, both players were happy to put this behind them. However, it quickly came to light that Clarke had told coach Mickey Arthur that Watson was a “cancer” on the side, and should be dropped due to this.

From there, their relationship has never been fully repaired, and although another public spat hasn’t played out, rumblings of another Clarke-Watson rift was murmured about at the start of this year.

#4 Andrew Strauss & Kevin Pietersen

Volatile relationship: Strauss and KP

There has always been whispers that Kevin Pietersen can be a hard man to get along with, and it seems Andrew Strauss can vouch for that.

In 2012, the cricketing world was shocked to learn that Pietersen had been dishing out text messages to England’s opponents South Africa in the middle of a Test series, containing information on how to bowl at Strauss and also giving a pretty frank assessment of what he thought of his captain as a person. KP was then dropped for the next Test following this scandal.

Strauss was obviously not happy about this at all, and his relationship with Pietersen doesn’t seem to have improved over time. In 2014, commentating on the annual MCC vs Rest of World fixture in which Pietersen was playing, Strauss was heard to have delivered a brutally honest expletive to describe his opinion on KP when he thought he was off air.

If that wasn’t enough to think that the two still don’t see eye-to-eye, then this surely is; while pushing for selection back into the England Test team – fresh of the back of a triple century at county level - Strauss, the new England Director of Cricket, was the man to tell Pietersen his cards were marked, saying that they can’t “trust” him. Ouch.

#3 Javed Miandad & Imran Khan

Miandad and Khan are Pakistan cricketing royalty

Two of Pakistan’s finest ever cricketers, Javed Miandad and Imran Khan, never quite got along. Many reasons are tossed up for their “rift”, including the Lahore-Karachi rivalry, political issues and just plain jealously. These men were almost polar opposites off the field, but had to learn to work together for the greater good of Pakistan cricket.

Miandad shed new light on his relationship with Khan in his autobiography. He makes speical mention of a few things he feels Khan did wrong by him, including declaring with Miandad on 280, closing in on the then world record score of 360 held by Sir Garfield Sobers, with no consultation or message.

He also makes reference to Khan throwing a party for the team on a tour of England, to which he was not invited to.

His most explosive claim, however, was that he believes Khan plotted against his captaincy in 1993, writing that perhaps Miandad’s reign might overshadow his legacy.

Despite their moments of animosity and dislike, there were a deep mutual respect and understanding between the pair. They each realised just how good the other was, and when they utilised their talents together, nothing could stop them.

#2 Michael Clarke & Simon Katich

Clarke and Katich in happier times

When Australia completed a thrilling Test win over South Africa at the Sydney Cricket Ground in 2009, the team settled into the dressing room for the traditional Aussie celebration of a few beers together and the singing of the prestigious team song well into the night.

Not one to be governed by tradition, Michael Clarke decided that the team song should be sung much earlier in the evening, apparently so he could dart off to spend time with his then girlfriend, model Lara Bingle.

Furious with his vice-captain’s behaviour, tough opener Simon Katich gave Clarke a piece of his mind of what he thought of this notion. From here, tempers flared and ended with Katich man-handling Clarke, grabbing the batsman by his thoat. The scuffle was broken up by teammates and Clarke quickly left the room. Those present claimed that the night continued as normal after Clarke’s departure.

While their teammates might have thought it was a non-issue, things were never quite friendly again between the pair, escalating in Katich’s dropping from the Cricket Australia contracted players list in 2011 – something Clarke is rumoured to have played a big part in as captain.

#1 Harbhajan Singh & S. Sreesanth

Two mercurial characters Harbhajan Singh and S Sreesanth

After the heat of battle of an IPL match in 2008, tensions between Indian teammates Harbhajan and Sreesanth boiled over. What followed was one of the most infamous moments ever seen on a cricket field.

On opposing sides for this Twenty/20 fixture, Harbhajan and Sreesanth came together to shake hands following the match, when Singh shockingly slapped his international counterpart, leading to uncontrollable crying from the paceman. Many teammates tried to console him but to no avail.

Following this blow-up, Singh was banned for the rest of the tournament while Sreesanth was let off with a warning.

No stranger to controversy, Sreesanth came out on Twitter in 2013 to relive the incident, and threw some explosive jabs at Harbhajan, calling him a “backstabbing person”, adding that he believes that the incident was pre-planned by Singh, and also claiming that he was elbowed rather than slapped.

Whatever truly happened that fateful night, the relationship between the two Indian stars was never the same, and the animosity continues today.