Hayden lashes out at Australian players for missing white-ball leg in Pakistan

Former Australian batter and Pakistan batting consultant, Matthew Hayden is unhappy at the Australian Players who have given priority to the Indian Premier League (IPL) instead of being part of the white ball leg against Pakistan.

Australia’s Test captain, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazelwood, David Warner were not named in Australia’s ODI and T20I squad for their much-anticipated tour of Pakistan. All these players preferred to take part in IPL which is scheduled at the same time as the limited over series against Pakistan.

According to reports, the star players gave priority to IPL over the tour of Pakistan. At the same time national team selector, George Bailey, confirmed that none of the players can join the IPL before April 6, The players would have missed more matches due to the quarantine protocol requirement of IPL.

Hayden showed his concern for the players who chose to take part in a franchise tournament over international duty and should be answerable.

“When players are choosing not to play for their country, it is a massive flag of concern for your high-performance set-up,” Hayden was quoted as saying by The Australian.

“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,” he added.

“I just feel Cricket Australia is being led around by the players lately and that has created a unique set of problems. You shouldn’t be able to cherry-pick when you want to play for Australia. It does not make any sense to me,” he further stated.

Hayden emphasized that if someone is not available for Australia so there should be some sort of accountability such as salary sacrifice.

“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,” he said.

“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 salary sacrifice,” he added.