‘One of the highlights of my career’: Damien Martyn recalls when angry Indian fans named a donkey after him | Cricket News

When Australia claimed the ICC Champions Trophy title for the first time in 2006, their victory was soon forgotten as a controversy made headlines. After Australia won the final eight wickets, defeating West Indies the Duckworth and Lewis Method, Australian players, in particular Damien Martyn, were seen shoving then BCCI President Sharad Pawar off the dais at the trophy ceremony.
That led to a massive furore in the host nation, particularly in Maharashtra where the NCP leader is revered.
Indian cricket legend Dilip Vengsarkar, who was India’s chief cricket selector at the time, even went on to say, “You expect such behaviour from uneducated people. If they wanted to pose for photographs, they could have politely requested him. This is appalling.”
A lot went on behind the scenes after that incident. Most Read
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Recollecting that controversy in a recent episode of Club Prairie Fire, with former Australia cricketer Adam Gilchr and ex-England player Michael Vaughn, Martyn 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.”
Opening up on what happened in the aftermath of that incident, Martyn said: “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.
“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 said as Gilchr and Vaughn burst out laughing.