Watch: In 2006, Stephen Fleming was heard having a go at former teammate-turned-commentator Mark Richardson after a day’s play against West Indies in a Test match, although it was later revealed that his rant was a prank organised by Richardson’s Sky TV colleagues.
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After a post-day interview with Fleming, Richardson was in for a shock as the Blackcaps skipper thanked him for the interview and then went on to send a volley of criticism his way for some of his comments from the commentary box the previous day.
“Yeah, you’re an idiot, that’s ridiculous, seriously that’s just ridiculous,” Fleming was heard telling. “Two things, you’ve forgotten who your mates are, some of your comments in the changing room. And the other thing is you’re just an idiot talking about scoring rates and picking up the tempo of games, you were one of the most boring players to watch and from what I’ve seen so far in your commentary position, it’s crap. You’re forgetting who your mates are mate, about six months ago you were with us.”
The comments caught Richardson by surprise, and he wore a shocked expression throughout the video.
Martin Crowe, who was Sky’s executive producer of cricket, later clarified that the entire scene was “scripted and not real although it has appeared on the internet as a news item.”
Fleming also stated: “I was asked by Mark [Crowe], who I get on very well with, to do a piece for Cricket Company. He said he was going to give me the opportunity to slag him off at the end. I said, ‘yeah, I’ll take a piece of that.”
