'B-grade actor': Matthew Hayden recalls sledging incident where he rattled Shoaib Akhtar

Matthew Hayden is no stranger when it comes to sledging. The Australia cricket team in the 2000s were known known to be master sledgers and used to get involved in psychological games with the opponent players.

There were already the best team in the world with maltitude of ability but one of the main tool was sledging. Hayden not long ago called to mind an incident when he played mind games against Shoaib Akhtar during Sharjah Test in 2002.

Shoaib Akhtar was known for being a lethal fast-bowler but he would always get involved in banter with opponents. Hayden revealed how he sledged the pacer out of the game by using interesting strategy.

“Someone like Akhtar for example, I’d call him ‘B-grade actor’ for a start, which used to get under his skin a bit,” Hayden said.

“We were playing in Sharjah and it was 58 degrees out in the middle and Akhtar, when we walked out, said, ‘I’m going to kill you today’ in a whole lot more colourful language. And I said, ‘Mate, that’s terrific, you know I’m looking forward to that challenge’ in a lot more colourful language.

“So I said, ‘But here’s the thing, Dumbo. You’ve got 18 balls to do it. You’ve got three overs because you’re going to turn into a marshmallow that’s been left on the plane too long and is going to be dripping down and I’m going to be the one at the other end of those 18 balls that’s going to be mopping it up’.”

The Australian opener not just sledged Akhtar but also used Indian umpire Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan in getting under Shoaib Akhtar’s skin.

“I go right, how can I get Shoaib looking like an absolute goose and how can I tell Venkat about this? Now India and Pakistan, there’s no love lost there, so I though that’s my point (of leverage),” Hayden said.

“So as Shoaib’s running in to bowl and he’s cursing every profanity under the sun at me, I get to his bowling mark as I’m counting down his balls from one to 18. He gets to his delivery stride and I pull out. He runs at me going, ‘What’s the problem?’

“I said, ‘I’ve got a problem’. I storm up to Venkat and say, ‘I give everything on the game, I deserve everything I get, but within the protocols and etiquette of the game, surely you can’t be running in and abusing someone’.”

“I think the only way that Shoaib is going to get me out here, is bowled — because Venkat’s definitely not going to give me LBW and I’m not going to get caught behind because this thing (the pitch) was an absolute Bunsen burner. It wasn’t bouncing more than a centimetre,” Hayden said.

“So all I had to do was stand my ground and that was it. He (Akhtar) got through his 18 balls and he collapsed at the end of it. And of course I take the opportunity to get my (fresh pair of) gloves I didn’t need and just go up to Shoaib and said, ‘You want to go off, don’t you?’

“And he says no. And I say, ‘Mate, come on. There’s no heroes in Test cricket. David Boon once said that to me. It’s hot and I know you’re busted. Just go off, I promise I won’t think any worse of you’.

“Anyway, he called old mate on and he’s gone off and he didn’t participate in the rest of the Test match,” Hayden signed off.

Few of the facts Hayden disclosed might be contended. In the only Test that Shoaib Akhtar played Hayden in Sharjah, he completed 14 overs and took only 1 wicket. However, Australia won the match by an innings and 198 runs while Matthew Hayden knocked a hundred.

Also Read: Brett Lee names team he thinks is favourite to win IPL 2020