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A dressing room stoush between two senior Australian cricketers has provided fresh evidence of simmering tensions within the national side.
Vice-captain Michael Clarke and test opener Simon Katich clashed physically after Australia had beaten South Africa in the third test in Sydney in January, their only notable win of the season.
The blue, which included Katich grabbing Clarke by the throat, came over the team song which is sung after every test win. Clarke wanted the ritual over and done with early to get out to a function with his high-profile model girlfriend Lara Bingle.
The timing of when the song, Beneath the Southern Cross, is sung is the prerogative of one player, at the moment experienced batsman Mike Hussey.
The teams had come off the field at 6pm; Clarke wanted it done before getting away from the ground by 11pm. Hussey apparently didn't begin the song until close to midnight after the scuffle had broken out.
"Yes, we had a disagreement after the Sydney test," Clarke told the Herald Sun newspaper. "This kind of thing occasionally happens in cricket teams.
"We didn't see eye to eye on that night, but we have been teammates at New South Wales and Australia a long time. We've spoken since, and there's no issue between us."
The pair had to be pulled apart by teammates on the night.
Katich confirmed the disagreement, but said: "We're both big enough and old enough to have moved on."
But the fact that it happened at all is seen as further damaging the harmony in the dressing room and points to serious problems within the Australian squad.
Not only are they playing poorly on the field, but if players are coming to blows over something as puerile as the singing of a team song, it hints at deep-seated rifts in the dressing room.
Cricket Australia spokesman Peter Young said no action had been taken and it was considered a private matter.
