(Image source: X.com)
[Saba Sports News] Former Australia batter Damien Martyn shared an incident in which he received an overwhelming amount of hate from all over India after the Men in Yellow won the ICC Champions Trophy.
In the final of the 2006 Champions Trophy, the Australian team defeated the West Indies side led by Brian Lara by eight wickets (DLS method) at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai. Their victory celebrating was spoiled as during the trophy presentation, Australian cricketers were involved in an incident in which they were seen pushing then BCCI President Sharad Pawar off the stage.
Notably, Martyn was among the ones who pushed Pawar and asked him to leave the stage after the BCCI President handed over the trophy to Ricky Ponting and Co.
As soon as the incident took place, the video of the same surfaced all over the globe, and fans on the streets of India were seen burning flags of Martyn and also named a donkey after his name.
Reacting to the incident, the 52-year-old recalled it in a recent episode of Club Prairie Fire podcast with the former Australia wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist and ex-England captain Michael Vaughan.
Martyn explained what actually happened on the podcast and said, “I don’t know what happened there! I just pushed him a little bit. A little nudge. He was in the front of our photo, wasn’t he? He made his speech and didn’t want to leave the stage. Brad Hogg asked (Pawar to get off) nicely. Ricky Ponting did the same. So I just gave him a nice little Aussie sledge, like a nudge. I didn’t think nothing of it. But it turned into a nightmare.”
He further shared that things got ugly in a matter of minutes and revealed that the then-Australia team manager told him to talk with an official of Cricket Australia.
“I got into the changing room and the team manager was there with the phone. He asked me to talk to a Cricket Australia official. I was like ‘jeez that moved fast! That escalated!’ Then I had to write a letter,” he added.
Martyn further stated that it was one of the highlights of his cricketing career, admitting that the Indian fans were not pleased with his actions.
“The next day, they were burning flags of me in the streets in India. And there was a donkey with my name on it with a mob around it! I’m not sure that donkey survived that day! That was one of the highlights of my career… someone put my name on a donkey! I tell my son the whole time, you’ve made it (big) when you have that done to you,” he concluded.