No cricketer wants to receive the dreaded news of being dropped during an Ashes campaign. Yet Steve Finn’s experience was particularly brutal, learning of his axing in the toilets at the MCG on Christmas Day. The setting was the iconic 2010/11 tour, marking England’s most recent Test series triumph on Australian territory.
Though Andrew Strauss’s men ultimately cruised to a commanding 3-1 victory, the series hung delicately in the balance at 1-1 as the Boxing Day Test at the MCG approached. Australia had seized the initiative following their Perth triumph in the third Test, whilst England faced some difficult selection dilemmas. Among the most challenging was what to do about Finn, who at that stage topped the series wicket-taking charts.
Yet after a below-par showing in Perth, England made the call to bring in Tim Bresnan for Finn – a decision that would ultimately prove astute. For the young quick, then merely 21 years old, it was crushing news, made all the more painful by the fact that his family had travelled to Melbourne specifically to watch him feature in the fourth Test.
Speaking on the For The Love of Cricket podcast alongside Jos Buttler and Stuart Broad, who himself endured anguish on that tour after an early injury-enforced departure, Finn reflected on that excruciating moment.
“The lowlight [of his Ashes memories] would be being dropped on Christmas Day by Andrew Strauss in the toilet area of the MCG,” he revealed.
“I kind of guessed [it was coming] because I’d gone round the park in Perth. We’d got rolled by [Mitchell] Johnson twice in that Test match. I hadn’t bowled well, I knew I was up for the chop, but you still try and retain some hope that you’re going to survive and play in a Boxing Day Test.
“He [Strauss] made a beeline for me and I thought, ‘Oh s***, this actually happening.’ He said, ‘Can we have a quiet word in the toilets?’ We were stood by the hand dryers.
“He delivered the news very matter-of-factly. It wasn’t unexpected but it still hit me like a train at the time because I’d been dreaming of playing in a Boxing Day Test.”