ACB defends Waugh over "no brain" remark

The Australian Cricket Board was forced to defend captain Steve Waugh on Thursday as South African journalists accused him of making an insensitive remark about fast bowler Steve Elworthy's brain scan.

Elworthy ducked into a bouncer from Australia's Glenn McGrath during Tuesday's limited overs international at Sydney Cricket Ground and was taken to a Sydney hospital.

As South Africa captain Shaun Pollock told an after-match news conference the scan had cleared Elworthy of any serious injury, Waugh was overheard to remark to ACB media manager Brian Murgatroyd: "Yeah, and I bet they didn't find a brain either."

South African journalists were highly critical of Waugh, describing the remark as "callous".

"When you say it as coldly as that it can come across as a bit offensive," South Africa selector Mike Proctor was quoted as saying in the Herald Sun newspaper on Thursday.

"From a team point of view there was nothing said at breakfast (on Wednesday). The atmosphere and knowing the way things are said, it could have been taken out of context.

"Knowing Steve Waugh, he's a good guy but the timing was wrong. I know our journalists are taken aback by it."

Murgatroyd said: "Steve is the last person to relish it when a fellow player is injured.

"He was also the first to Elworthy after he had been hit by the ball," Murgatroyd added.

The Daily Telegraph newspaper sprang to Waugh's defence.

"Yes, Waugh's comment was silly but, really, it was just a flippant remark said every day in X-ray clinics across the nation."

Also read:
Wah, Waugh! - Prem Panicker

Mail Cricket Editor