Cricket World Cup: Shane Watson ready to unleash at Eden Park

Shane Watson fields during an Australian training session preparing fpr Saturday's Cricket World Cup clash with the Black Caps. Photo / Getty Images

Frustrated allrounder will hope to dispel trend of embarrassing YouTube clips

If Shane Watson was the type who worried what others thought of him, he would be spending a fortune pouring his heart out to a shrink ahead of Saturday's Cricket World Cup clash with the Black Caps.

Because a lot of what is said about him is unkind.

Take YouTube, for instance. Type "Shane Watson" into the search field and you get an astonishing array of choice. There are Shane Watson lbw compilations; there's a look back at Watson's "embarrassing" first ball in test cricket (when he ended up going A over K); there are clips of his confrontations with Gautam Gambhir and Keiron Pollard among others; and most prominently, his almost-impossible-to-parody wicket celebrations, most notably against Chris Gayle.

On most occasions, the denizens of YouTube have acted as judge and jury and Watson, one of the more accomplished modern-day allrounders, is going down as the bad guy. The orgasmic celebration of Gayle's wicket was so cringe-inducing that even Channel Nine's bloviators, who would have found a way to defend Ted Bundy if he batted No3 for Australia, were inclined to condemn.

If that was a rarity, so is the fact that Watson, a hard-hitting player capable of destroying attacks with the bat and breaking partnerships with the ball, is not universally revered in his homeland.

"He is the most misunderstood sportsman I've ever come across," said a source familiar with the inner workings of Australian cricket, who described him as one of the nicest people in the sport.

That same message comes through from the New Zealanders who have got to know him after years on the international circuit. "Approachable", "genuine" and "nice bloke" are common refrains, about a million miles from his public image.

"They're not strangers. That's one great thing about the IPL. To be able to get to know opposition guys you normally wouldn't really mix with that much," Watson said of the New Zealanders. "Tim Southee is in my IPL team so it's been good to get to know him. Or sort of good. Because I didn't really have a high opinion of him playing against him, but knowing him now I realise he's a very nice guy so it's going to be a bit different out there in the middle."

It would appear, then, that Watson is accursed by white-line fever, an affliction common to many high-performance sportsmen and women and one that can have positive and negative consequences.

Watson alluded to it when he spoke to the media ahead of Saturday's crunch Pool A clash against New Zealand at Eden Park. Asked about the likelihood of sledging in the game - Australia do, New Zealand say they don't - Watson said: "No, I am not very good at sledging. It's more of an occasional bit of frustration more than anything."

Frustration is a good word for Watson at the moment. He bagged a first-ball duck against England and missed a chance for some runs against Bangladesh due to Brisbane's Big Wet, so he's fair chomping at the bit to spend a bit of time in the middle at Eden Park.

If he does, it won't be popular - but he'd be used to that by now.

Watson by the numbers
• ODIs 181, runs 5478 (average 40.3), 100s 9, wickets 164 (average 31.3)
• v NZ 16, Runs 527 (average 47.9), 100s 1, wickets 16 (average 34.7)

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