FORMER Australian opener and new Cricket Australia director Matthew Hayden has gone into bat for a rearrangement of the cricket calendar, with fewer 50-over internationals and an expansion of the Big Bash Twenty20 interstate competition.
Hayden held as an example England's tour of Australia this year, consisting of five Ashes Tests, then a seven-match one-day series. ''We'll see five potentially unbelievable Test matches,'' he said. ''Interest is going to be really high. Then we're going to roll out seven one-dayers on the back of it. It's too many.
Batsman Mike Hussey said the issue had been discussed at some length.
"Some guys don't want to downplay the series but want to try to take the pressure off as much as possible and just go in and relax and enjoy and express ourselves and be able to play freely," Hussey told the West Australian.
As a result Hayden averaged just 35.33 in the five Tests, a figure boosted considerably by his 138 in the fifth Test at the Oval, an innings that may have saved his career.
"I love the Ashes," Hayden said. "I loved the hype of it."
''Someone like [Andrew] Symonds is a really good case. He's now lost to Test and one-day cricket but he's got an option to play elsewhere. It's challenging our thinking. It's challenging times, and I want to be a part of it.''
'As we know, you can practise against that stuff as much as you like, but you can't replicate the feeling of success or failure or fear of failure and the crowd,'' he said.
The 38-year-old did say the opportunity to write the book had given him a form of closure on a 15-year international career that saw him set the record for the highest Australian scores in Test (380) and One-Day (181) games.
"I love playing cricket for Australia," he declared.
No comments:
Post a Comment