Matthew Hayden lashes out at Ravi Shastri over comments on pitches
The pitched debate surrounding the nature of pitches used in the India-South Africa series boiled over on Tuesday, with Matthew Hayden taking offence at India Team Director Ravi Shastri’s swipe at the Australians asking them to mind their own business.
Reacting to Shastri, Hayden said that he had a right to comment on the quality of cricket on the virtue of having played 103 Tests for his country.
The 44-year-old said, "After a 103 Test matches, I deserve a voice and I will have that voice for the betterment of cricket. And there were some terrific reactions. For example, Ravi Shastri just said the popular view 'Go back home and worry about your own pitches’.”
Hayden also claimed that he had made the comments out of love for the sport and that about 20% of the cricketing world would agree with him on the basis of being true cricket fans.
He said, "Non-Indian commenting on the conditions in India and I reckon probably 80 percent said 'mind your business and go back to Australia and worry about your own country' which is fair enough.
"But 20 percent of the people that understand the game and have a great passion for the game, a comment like mine whether they like or not is from the base of loving this sport, from the base of loving the conditions and also experiencing diverse conditions across the world.”
Hayden-Maxwell vs Shastri
Australian cricketers Matthew Hayden and Glenn Maxwell were among those who were appaled at the low scores seen in the Nagpur Test, which was decided in India’s favour within three days.
During the second day’s play, with the batsmen increasingly finding it difficult to tackle the turn and bounce, Hayden had alleged that a good contest was being marred by tampering with the conditions.
Ravi Shastri had been among those who had seen nothing wrong with a match being concluded within three days, refusing to read any negative lessons into the affair.
"Let them sit in Australia and talk about their pitches. Tell them not to waste their time about Indian tracks. Come and play here," is how Shastri had reacted to the comments made by Hayden and Maxwell.
The final Test of the four-match series will start from December 3rd and will be played at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium in Delhi. India have taken an unassailable lead of 2-0 in the series and now South Africa will be playing only for pride in the fourth Test.
Interesting this debate on wickets Ravi Shastri's attitude to substandard wickets is a short term fix to a long term problem #AdelaideNagpur
— Matthew Hayden AM (@HaydosTweets) November 30, 2015