Haddin brushes off arrogant Aussie tag
Former test wicketkeeper Brad Haddin doesn’t believe Australian cricket morphed into an arrogant and bullying culture, adding it’s important for everyone to finally move on from the ball-tampering scandal.
A damning independent report in the wake of the sandpaper scandal in South Africa painted a grim picture of Cricket Australia’s culture. Words such as arrogant, dictatorial, controlling, disrespectful, and hypocritical were used to describe the culture within Australian cricket.
Haddin was part of the test team from 2008-2015. During that period, Australia were involved in a number of run-ins with their rivals.
When asked whether words like arrogant and bullying were fair descriptions of Australian cricket of the past, Haddin replied: ‘‘No, I don’t think it is.
‘‘The independent review got done, everyone gets to have their say openly and honestly, and that’s what you want.
‘‘From our point of view, we’re moving forward. It’s been six months since South Africa. A lot of water has gone under the bridge.
‘‘We’ve got start rebuilding the cricket team to start winning games for Australia and get a cricket team that Australia can be proud of.’’
In Australia’s 2015 World Cup final triumph over New Zealand, Haddin openly sledged Brendon McCullum’s Black Caps because they were, in his own words, ‘‘too nice’’. ‘‘I said in the team meeting: ‘I can’t stand for this anymore, we’re going at them as hard as we can.’’
He came under fire because of repeated chatter and ‘‘sending off’’ of New Zealand batsmen Martin Guptill and Grant Elliott.
Haddin has a long history of controversial incidents with the Black Caps that stretches back to 2009 when his glovework during a Neil Broom dismissal rankled then-captain Daniel Vettori.
Australian cricket has been regularly criticised for its win-atall-costs mentality. It is a mentality players believed existed during the balltampering scandal.
Haddin said it was important to win, but it needed to be achieved in the right manner.
‘‘No matter what sport you play, you always want to win,’’ said Haddin, who is now an assistant coach to Justin Langer in the Australian set-up.
‘‘But you’ve got to do it with humility. We’re all involved in sport to win games and grow cricket teams. But there’s a right and a wrong way to do it.’’
When asked whether there was a finer line now in regards to sledging, Haddin replied: ‘‘There’s not a finer line. I think you’re trying to look for something that’s not there.’’