Glenn Maxwell fined for his comments criticizing Matthew Wade

Australian allrounder Glenn Maxwell days after criticizing Victoria team captain Matthew Wade who is also his Australian ODI teammate for making him bat lower in the order has been fined by the Australian team leadership that includes skipper Steve Smith. His comments were termed “disrespectful” towards Wade and thus the monetary penalty was imposed.

Having batted at No.6 in Victoria’s Sheffield Shield game Maxwell felt that it was unfair for him to be asked to bat below the wicketkeeper. “That’s probably a little bit painful at times. I think probably batting below the wicketkeeper is also a bit painful as well,” said Maxwell, “I think the wicketkeeper should be batting at seven unless you’re trying to squeeze an extra bowler into your line-up.

National team Head Coach Darren Lehmann also described his comments as “disappointing”. The team management called for a press conference where the coach and the skipper were present with other senior members. Talking there, Smith said, “Everyone was disappointed in his comments,”

“I’ve expressed that to him myself and spoke to the team.

“One of our values is respect and having respect for your teammates, opposition, the fans, the media.

“I thought what he said was very disrespectful to a teammate and his Victorian captain.

“The leadership group got together and we decided to fine Glenn.

“We thought that was a sufficient punishment.

“We’ve gone down that path and I was disappointed with the comments that he made.

“Wadey was pretty disappointed as well, like all the other players.

“As I said I talk about a respect thing for your teammates and particularly the captain of your state.

“He was disappointed but we’ve moved on from that now.”

Smith also said that the punishment was conveyed to Maxwell and he was “shattered” after hearing that. “I don’t think he (Maxwell) thought the words came out the way they actually did,”

“We’ve moved on from that now.

“We’ve fined him and expressed our disappointment towards what he said and moving on and trying to focus on this game tomorrow.” Smith said.

He finds support from Mitchell Johnson:

The former Australian pacer wasn’t really impressed with the fine and tweeted, “A fine, really!! Should be batting in front of a wicketkeeper considering he is a batsman. He was only being honest right??”