Excerpt from Matt Hayden's to-be-published autobiography ("Of Weeds, Sightscreens and the Third World") :
"I have always talked straight...it is the way I play my game too. I bat straight, I talk straight. It has got me into a spot of bother at times. But I know of no other way.
There was this time when India toured Oz in the summer of 07-08. That was a nasty series, with the Indians crying about anything and everything. Everything happened - my good mate Symmo was abused by Harbhajan Singh, the Indians went on and on about the umpiring just because they were desperate to beat the world champs.
After the Test series or somewhere towards the end of it, I was asked what I thought about Harbhajan. I told them what I thought - that he was an obnoxious little weed. Yes, he was - and I was not going to pretend otherwise. I know all of us in the Oz dressing room thought so - I was just expressing our collective view. I was also asked what I thought about that young medium-pacer the Indians then had. A tall, lanky guy with hair like he had never had a haircut all his life. Ishant Sharma. Now I never really rated the guy but these Indians were going ga-ga over him. I said jokingly that I would like to face him in a boxing ring.
It was just one of those interviews. Where one of our own asks you a few questions, you just let down your hair a bit and have some fun. All for our home audience, you know the type of thing, right ? Well, these Indians made a big fuss of that too. Before I knew it, there was a big drama about this. Since the atmosphere was already very strained Punter took me aside and told me "You are totally right, Haydos and you know that I am totally with you. But we've had enough trouble already. Just say you're sorry and the whole thing will disappear. Let's just get these Indians off our backs and back to India as soon as possible."
So I apologised - not that I believed in it one bit. I believed then - and I believe now - that Harbhajan Singh is an obnoxious little weed who should never have stepped on a cricket field. We Aussies play the game hard but are respectful towards our opponents. Harbhajan tests the limits every single time he meets us, steps over the limit very often and seems to get away with it only because he has the support of his Board. It just does not seem right.
Later that year, we were to tour India again. We were very keen to avoid all forms of controversy. The Indian media is a nasty piece of work. They hound you all the time - looking for comments, hints, just snippets that they can then blow up and colour in whatever way they like. We had already lost Symmo to a local incident, so the spotlight would definitely shift to the rest of us. Punter was very particular that we maintain a low profile through the tour.
We started reasonably - and had a good chance of taking the game at Bangalore. But then we slipped up a bit. Or rather, India got to us. The conditions were awful, some of us fell ill. We lost at Mohali, drew at Delhi but things came to a head in the decider at Nagpur. We were in with a very good chance on the fourth day around tea but then the Indians played their trump card. They slowed the game with all the smart tricks that only Indians are capable of. There were spectators constantly moving around and the sightscreen had to be constantly moved. Which would be fine if it were in our country. You know, we respect time here, we want to get a game on and give full value to the spectators. But in third world countries, they see it differently. Whether it is that they don't value time or they don't have the facilities or they just realised that we were levelling the game, I don't know, but they just did not help us get through our overs. To add insult to injury, Punter was called up by the umpires and reminded that we were behind on over-rate. He used his best judgement and bowled Cam and Mike (Hussey) after tea, hoping to get more overs through and hopefully pick up some wickets too. It did not happen and everybody turned on him. Poor guy, I feel for him. Punter was a great leader, always led from the front. The Indians, in a collective effort, managed to sabotage the game against us and turned it all into a massive media attack on Punter. We of course realised that touring India would always be difficult, being third world and all that, but this was something that even, by Indian standards, we had not expected. And to think that we treat Indians so well when they visit us. Of course we have the facilities and can afford to treat our visitors properly...."
"I have always talked straight...it is the way I play my game too. I bat straight, I talk straight. It has got me into a spot of bother at times. But I know of no other way.
There was this time when India toured Oz in the summer of 07-08. That was a nasty series, with the Indians crying about anything and everything. Everything happened - my good mate Symmo was abused by Harbhajan Singh, the Indians went on and on about the umpiring just because they were desperate to beat the world champs.
After the Test series or somewhere towards the end of it, I was asked what I thought about Harbhajan. I told them what I thought - that he was an obnoxious little weed. Yes, he was - and I was not going to pretend otherwise. I know all of us in the Oz dressing room thought so - I was just expressing our collective view. I was also asked what I thought about that young medium-pacer the Indians then had. A tall, lanky guy with hair like he had never had a haircut all his life. Ishant Sharma. Now I never really rated the guy but these Indians were going ga-ga over him. I said jokingly that I would like to face him in a boxing ring.
It was just one of those interviews. Where one of our own asks you a few questions, you just let down your hair a bit and have some fun. All for our home audience, you know the type of thing, right ? Well, these Indians made a big fuss of that too. Before I knew it, there was a big drama about this. Since the atmosphere was already very strained Punter took me aside and told me "You are totally right, Haydos and you know that I am totally with you. But we've had enough trouble already. Just say you're sorry and the whole thing will disappear. Let's just get these Indians off our backs and back to India as soon as possible."
So I apologised - not that I believed in it one bit. I believed then - and I believe now - that Harbhajan Singh is an obnoxious little weed who should never have stepped on a cricket field. We Aussies play the game hard but are respectful towards our opponents. Harbhajan tests the limits every single time he meets us, steps over the limit very often and seems to get away with it only because he has the support of his Board. It just does not seem right.
Later that year, we were to tour India again. We were very keen to avoid all forms of controversy. The Indian media is a nasty piece of work. They hound you all the time - looking for comments, hints, just snippets that they can then blow up and colour in whatever way they like. We had already lost Symmo to a local incident, so the spotlight would definitely shift to the rest of us. Punter was very particular that we maintain a low profile through the tour.
We started reasonably - and had a good chance of taking the game at Bangalore. But then we slipped up a bit. Or rather, India got to us. The conditions were awful, some of us fell ill. We lost at Mohali, drew at Delhi but things came to a head in the decider at Nagpur. We were in with a very good chance on the fourth day around tea but then the Indians played their trump card. They slowed the game with all the smart tricks that only Indians are capable of. There were spectators constantly moving around and the sightscreen had to be constantly moved. Which would be fine if it were in our country. You know, we respect time here, we want to get a game on and give full value to the spectators. But in third world countries, they see it differently. Whether it is that they don't value time or they don't have the facilities or they just realised that we were levelling the game, I don't know, but they just did not help us get through our overs. To add insult to injury, Punter was called up by the umpires and reminded that we were behind on over-rate. He used his best judgement and bowled Cam and Mike (Hussey) after tea, hoping to get more overs through and hopefully pick up some wickets too. It did not happen and everybody turned on him. Poor guy, I feel for him. Punter was a great leader, always led from the front. The Indians, in a collective effort, managed to sabotage the game against us and turned it all into a massive media attack on Punter. We of course realised that touring India would always be difficult, being third world and all that, but this was something that even, by Indian standards, we had not expected. And to think that we treat Indians so well when they visit us. Of course we have the facilities and can afford to treat our visitors properly...."
But seriously is that thread now completely redundant.
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