Australia batsman Matthew Hayden has launched a verbal attack on India’s cricketers, describing Harbhajan Singh as an ”obnoxious weed” and challenging Ishant Sharma to a fight.
Hayden said the Australian players were fed up with the constant complaints from the Indians about their on-field behaviour during a spiteful tour Down Under.
Three Indian players, including Harbhajan and Sharma, have been found guilty of breaching the player’s code of conduct but the tourists have accused the Australians of provoking them.
Hayden said his dispute with Harbhajan had been running for years but the reason the Indians were complaining so much on this tour was because ”they are losing every game they are playing”.
”It’s been a bit of a long battle with Harbhajan. The first time I ever met him he was the same little obnoxious weed that he is now,” Hayden told a Brisbane radio station.
”His record speaks for itself in cricket. There is a certain line that you can kind of go to and then you know where you push it and he just pushes it all the time.
”That’s why he has been charged more than anyone that’s ever played in the history of cricket.”
Hayden also had some advice for teenage fast bowler Sharma, who was fined 15% of his match fee after an ugly exchange with Andrew Symonds at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Sunday.
”He is just young. I have said to him many times, ‘You are 19, take it easy’,” Hayden said.
”He is 19, why doesn’t he just worry about his bowling for a while?
”I like the idea of actually getting into the ring. I like that, let’s bring that one.”
Hayden’s sentiments were echoed by former fast bowler Rodney Hogg who said he was also tired of India’s complaints and thinly-veiled threats to boycott matches.
”I’ve really had a gutful of their whingeing. This is international sport, obviously people are going to say things to try to unsettle you,” Hogg told the Courier-Mail.
”It’s not tiddlywinks. So long as it’s not racial they shouldn’t have a problem. As far as I am concerned if the heat is too hot in the kitchen then that’s too bad.”
India’s team manager Bimal Soni told reporters in Sydney that the tourists did not want to publicly respond to Hayden’s comments.
”We want to play cricket… with what Hayden said, our stance is vindicated,” Soni said.
”This sort of thing should not happen but we’ve decided to take it in our stride and want to get on with preparing for the finals.” – Reuters