Debasis Sen, Adelaide: The buzz word in Australian cricket these days is culture and how it led to the Sandpaper-gate and the banning of Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft. There has been talk of how hard is the brand of cricket. In a chat with XtraTime, Tait said, “The culture had become a bit nasty over the years and Cricket Australia were left with no option but to take strict action.”
He added, “Australian cricketers have always played the game, what we call, the hard way. At times we have been intimidating. I remember playing against New Zealand and they called us a pack of dogs. That’s the way we played like that as we wanted that reaction. The last few years it got slightly away from that. It seemed that it got a bit nasty at times. But at the same time one has to recognise that this has been happening for a long time.
Tait however would not blame the culture prevailing the Australian cricket over the years for the sandpaper gate.
“In the sandpaper-gate, couple of guys made the wrong call. They might have felt that they are under pressure. I don’t think that you can blame years of culture for that decision. The guys involved in that incident have got their penalties. You can penalise the whole of Australia because of that incident.”
Tait, who just played 3 test matches for his country had a disastrous debut against India at Perth during the 2007-08 series.
There was enough controversy surrounding the monkey gate episode with Tendulkar being called a liar and Harbhajan Singh accused of a racial slur. To make matters worse, India lost both the previous two tests in Melbourne and Sydney. The local media predicted that a young fast bowler named Shaun Tait will bounce India out with his balls as fast as 160kmph on a pacy WACA wicket. What happened in reality was both bad for Australia, as they lost by 72 runs and Tait as he bowled 21 wicket-less overs.
The poor show left a deep mental scar on Tait and was forced take a break from international cricket.
Recalling his test debut, Tait said, “Didn’t turn up (test debut) that well. That wasn’t a fun memory at all. There was a lot of build-up before the Test match. The talk about that ‘the guy would ball at 170kmph’ is not real. I just went through a bad time mentally and physically during that phase. I ended up stop playing for a few months after that. It took some time to get back. But I have had a few good games against India in limited over cricket.”
The big built pacer is happily married with his long time Indian girlfriend Mashoom and have a cute daughter named Wynter.