04 February,2011 02:07 PM IST | | Agencies
Former Australian opener Matthew Hayden has re-opened a seven-year-old controversy by claiming that ex-India captain Sourav Ganguly and off-spinner Harbhajan Singh chickened out of the series-deciding 2004 Nagpur Test due to a fear of the green-top pitch there.
In his autobiography 'Standing My Ground', Hayden writes that the Australians felt at that time that the nature of the pitch had led to the sudden withdrawal of Ganguly and Harbhajan from the Test, which the visitors eventually won to clinch a historic series win.
"The curator, a famously single-minded character with no love of the Indian hierarchy, ignored pleas to shave the deck and left a healthy covering of grass. It reminded me of Gabba (In Brisbane). To have that sort of wicket for the deciding Test of an away series - particularly in India - was the most pleasant surprise imaginable," Hayden wrote.
"When Ganguly and Harbhajan went out to see the deck a couple of days before the game, they looked like farmers inspecting crops after a hail storm. We predicted neither would play, and they did not. Ganguly withdrew with a leg-muscle injury that flared up suddenly, and Harbhajan had an even more sudden dose of food poisoning.
We put their ailments down to acute cases of 'greentrackitis', where you develop a severe intolerance to green wickets likely to give you nothing as a spin bowler and plenty of headaches as a batsman," wrote Hayden, who retired from international cricket in 2009.
Hayden, who scored 8625 runs in 103 Tests, however, has plenty of admiration for the Indians for their cricketing ability and named four of them -- Harbhajan, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Virender Sehwag -- among the 12 best players he had played against. He rated Tendulkar and Brian Lara as the best among opposition batsmen.
"A significant part of his (Tendulkar's) game was his fierce body language. For a little man, he had a huge stature. And he exuded a cool nonchalance at the crease. He may have the occasional crack, but generally he let his bat do the talking. He was so fearless and (ridiculously) skillful.
"He and Lara were the most skillful batsmen I have ever seen. Just the way they manipulated the field was fascinating to watch. Against spin Sachin was in complete control. There was never any strategy implemented by Warnie or another spinner against him which made me think, 'Here we go ... let us see how he handles this'.
"Sachin is quite a shy guy, and I can't claim to know him well at all. He kept his distance. But for Sachin to survive and thrive in international cricket for two full decades is extraordinary," Hayden wrote. For the calm and composure in times of adversity, Hayden described Dravid as the Bjorn Borg of cricket.
