Mitchell Johnson will not be attending the 2024 Australian Cricket Awards.
The Aussie Test great on Friday posted a scathing message on Instagram in which he took a shot at Cricket Australia.
The West-Australian’s post shows there is little hope the bitter rift will be mended any time soon after Cricket Australia sensationally stood him down from two speaking engagements at the First Test in Perth last week.
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The appearances were cancelled due to Cricket Australia’s view that Johnson, 42, had taken his criticisms of David Warner, 37, too far in an explosive column for The West Australian in early December.
Johnson has now revealed he has received an invitation to attend the 2024 Australian Cricket Awards where the most prestigious individual award in Australian men’s cricket — the Allan Border Medal — is presented.
Johnson, who won the medal in 2014, showed disgust when posting his response to the invitation.
“Is Cricket Australia serious??,” Johnson wrote.
“Last week I was cancelled from two speaking engagements. This week I’m invited to celebrate with them.”
According to the SMH, Cricket Australia did not wish to comment when contacted.
A Cricket Australia spokesman on Wednesday moved to respond to the swirling reports about Johnson being pulled from his two speaking gigs.
“Mitchell is one of Australia’s most celebrated bowlers, but we felt on this occasion it was in everyone’s best interests that he was not the guest speaker at the CA functions,’’ a CA spokesman said.
Aussie great Mike Hussey replaced Johnson as the guest speaker at the lunch events.
Veteran journalist Robert Craddock said this week Cricket Australia ultimately “muzzled” Johnson because of the ongoing furore between the former fast-bowler and retiring opening batsman.
“I believe it was Cricket Australia’s call, however, I do believe it was done to short circuit any chance that the players would blow up about it,” Craddock said on SEN 1170 Breakfast.”
He said Cricket Australia believed it would have been a bad look to put Johnson up to speak at the two pre-arranged functions.
While Johnson has largely stood by his criticisms of Warner in the days since his newspaper column became the talk of the cricket world, he did express one regret while speaking on his podcast The Mitchell Johnson Cricket Show.
The 313-Test wicket great said he regretted bringing up the sandpaper scandal but stood by his other points including that players shouldn’t get to dictate the terms of their retirement.
“There is one thing I wasn’t that happy with,” Johnson said.
“I didn’t notice it at the time. I was reading the article and just sort of went with it. The “Bunnings” and the “sandpaper” part of it. Probably distasteful. That was probably something that didn’t need to be said.
Warner responded to the storm by blasting a knock of 164 in the first innings against Pakistan at Optus Stadium.
Johnson, however, refused to take a step back from his criticism and again reiterated his view that this summer against “softer” opponents Pakistan and West Indies was the right time to bring in Warner’s eventual replacement.
Warner on several occasions insisted he was not flustered by Johnson’s personal criticism, despite making a “shush” gesture by putting his finger to his lips while celebrating his century against Pakistan.
The whole furore erupted when Johnson wrote in his newspaper column that Warner did not deserve a “hero’s farewell” at the New Year’s Test in Sydney because of his extended form slump.
Johnson earlier this month suggested he was not the one who started the fight and shared details of a text message Warner sent to him.
He said on The Mitchell Johnson Cricket Show podcast his relationship with Warner was fractured in April, when he first said the batsman should not have been selected for the Ashes Tour this winter.
Johnson described Warner’s wife Candice as “weird and cringey” when she attempted to defend his place in the Australian team during a TV appearance, where she said there was no one “better” to replace her husband.
“I got a message from Dave, which was quite personal and I tried to ring him to talk to him about it,” Johnson said, as reported by Code Sports’ cricket writer Robert Craddock.
“It was never a personal thing then. Until that point. That is what prompted me to write the article or part of it as well. It’s definitely a factor. Some of the things that he mentioned in that message.
“I won’t say it because that’s up to Dave to say if he wants to talk about it. There was some stuff in there, which was extremely disappointing what he said and pretty bad to be honest. That sort of was a bit of a driver.”
The drama will be waiting for all the parties involved when they roll up to the MCG for the Boxing Day Test.
