Hayden gets light rap, Bhajji fires silent shots

Sydney, February 27: It was long overdue and Cricket Australia (CA) finally did wake up from its deep slumber to put an end to the verbal warfare initiated by its players, in what has been an ugly summer against the Indian team. Upholding the charges, it severely reprimanded Matthew Hayden for the ‘breach of code of behaviour’ following his ‘obnoxious little weed’ remarks against Harbhajan Singh on a radio talkshow yesterday.

According to a Cricket Australia press release here, the Australian opener breached the CA Code of Behaviour Rule 9 relating to “detrimental public comment” following the charge made by CEO James Sutherland. Code of Conduct Commissioner Ron Beazley issued a reprimand of Hayden as penalty for the breach.

Small rap, big surprise

Contrary to expectations that the left-hander will be slapped with a fine during the three-hour appeal’s hearing, the simple reprimand came as a surprise. The decision at 11.30 pm Melbourne time brought an end to a hectic day that started with Sutherland promising BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah some serious action after the Indian board had complained against Hayden’s unwarranted remarks and other Australian cricketers. Yesterday, Hayden had called Harbhajan an ‘obnoxious little weed’ and followed it up with a few words of advice to Ishant Sharma.

The Indian team, however, refused to go overboard, instead firing silent barbs at the opener. Harbhajan Singh, who arrived at the Hobart airport in the morning, looked rather relaxed and undisturbed by yet another verbal sling at him. “What’s the meaning of the word, please tell me,” he smiled. “Seriously, who’s Matthew Hayden?” he asked defiantly.

We’ll play our cricket

“Everybody knows who the bad boys in Cricket are,” he said in a veiled remark to Australia’s sledging reputation. “I have encountered enough on this tour. I just want to stay away from all this now. I’m used to it, it doesn’t make a difference any more. Let them keep talking, we’ll play our cricket.

“Maybe they know that we are challenging them and have done well against them. That’s why they are coming out with words like that,” he said, rushing to join Sachin Tendulkar .

Even team manager Vimal Soni seemed to brush aside the issue. “We have nothing to do with what CA is doing about it. Our job is to play cricket and not get involved in what others say,” said Soni when asked for his reaction to the Hayden let-off .

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