Former Australia batsman Matthew Hayden recalled a sledging incident with Pakistan's Shoaib Akhtar from the 2002 Sharjah Test. The Aussies are well-known sledgers and they use their words as a weapon to disturb the targetted players in opposition.
Hayden used to call Akhtar a 'B-Grade' actor which always bothered the Pakistan speedster. He had got an upper hand on Shoaib during the Sharjah Test between Australia and Pakistan in 2002.
“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 on The Grade Cricketer podcast.
“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 colorful language. And I said, ‘Mate, that’s terrific, you know I’m looking forward to that challenge’ in a lot more colorful 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 are going to be mopping it up’.”
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Hayden was smart with his words and he used the Indian umpire Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan to leave Akhtar fuming. “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 thought 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 centimeter,” he said.
The Australia opener had everything well planned and in the end, Akhtar had to walk off the field.
“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 are 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 concluded.
(With The Grade Cricketer podcast Inputs)
