Australia’s fomer openining batsman Matthew Hayden has accepted a commentary assignment for the India vs Australia One-Day International series after another former great, Ian Chappell, refused to accept the ‘dos and dont’s’ laid down by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
by BIPIN DANI
Matthew Hayden (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Chappell, the former Australia captain, has turned down a relatively lucrative deal for a few weeks covering the series because he felt his freedom to say what he thought was being compromised by the BCCI.
“I was invited by ESPN to do commentary. I emailed back asking who I was working for and the reply was that I was contracted by ESPN but I would be subject to BCCI restrictions,” Chappell told the Hindustan Times.
After asking what the BCCI restrictions were, Chappell was told, “I couldn’t talk about Indian selection, DRS or administrative matters. I responded saying I didn’t feel I could do my job properly under those circumstances and therefore declined the offer.”
Chappell has since been replaced by Hayden, not a man known for towing the line himself. He was unaware of Chappell’s decision, but has vowed to speak his mind.
“I will be in India next week and joining the commentary team in Jaipur,” Hayden confirmed. “I am available for the last six ODI’s.
“To me it is not the Indian cricket board’s dictatorship. I shall be airing my frank views.
“Yes, it is not for me to criticize the administration of the Indian cricket board but I think the BCCI is right in opposing the DRS”, he added.
During his playing days Hayden was fined after smashing a pavilion window in anger after being given out by an umpire in the Sydney Test against England in 2003. In 2008, he was one of the witnesses for Andrew Symonds’s charges against Harbhajan Singh and was also charged for a code of conduct violation by his national board after calling the Indian spinner an ‘obnoxious little weed’.
He has also been reported to have called India a third world country. It is unlikely Hayden will bow to BCCI censorship when behind the microphone.
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