Former Australian Opening batsmen and Pakistan Batting Consultant Matthew Hayden is very unhappy with some of the senior players of the current Australian team who have decided to skip the ODI and T20 international series against Pakistan in order to be available to play for the complete season of the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) in March 2022.
In the few weeks earlier when Cricket Australia (CA) had announced the Australian squad for the ODI and T20 Series against Pakistan, there was a concern if the Australian senior players will be selected or not to play the white ball series against Pakistan due to the Pakistan ODI and T20 Internationals dates were clashing with the upcoming IPL 2022 season.
Cricket Australia tried doing their best to retain and lock some of the senior players until 5th April 2022, yet some of the senior and famous Australian stars like Pat Cummins (Kolkata Knight Riders), David Warner (Delhi Capitals), Josh Hazlewood (Royal Challengers Bangalore) will head to India to participate in IPL 2022 from 6th April 2022.
This was expected as many australian cricket fans who participate and play in australia online casino had predicted that many senior Australian players will cut short their tour to Pakistan in order to participate in IPL 2022.
Noticing this personal preference of playing in the IPL over national duty especially from some of the senior players in the current Australian squad has infuriated former Australian opening batsman Matthew Hayden and he has called for a pay cut for those players who skip Australia matches.
According to Hayden “I just don’t reckon it passes the pub test. The single biggest thing which ties everything together at that level is that you are all really keen to play for your country and if you haven’t got that, I actually question whether you have a high-performance culture at all,” Hayden was quoted as saying by The Australian.
“It just makes it so hard to build all the things you are trying to have like team values, principles, giving a s*** about your mates. I just feel Cricket Australia is being led around by the players lately and that has created a unique set of problems,” added Hayden.
Further expressing his disappointment, Hayden, who was among the coaching staff for Pakistan during the T20 World Cup, said, “You shouldn’t be able to cherry-pick when you want to play for Australia.
“It doesn’t make any sense to me. We all know how important the IPL is and it has its window and I know it can be difficult for players and administrators to operate within the confines of modern schedules, but I still think you can’t have your cake and eat it.
“If you are unavailable to play for Australia, there has to be some accountability. You shouldn’t be paid for work you don’t do and should have to do a salary sacrifice.
“People will say that I played IPL which is true, but it never had any effect on my availability playing for Australia. I couldn’t wait to play for Australia because I spent seven years where I couldn’t get in the bloody team,” concluded Hayden.
Australia start their tour of Pakistan with a three-match Test series, starting March 4 2022. The IPL-bound Australian players are expected to leave Pakistan for India after the third Test, which concludes on March 25, 2022.
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