Matthew Hayden Suggests Pay Cut Of Players Missing Matches For Australia

Former Australia opener Matthew Hayden on Friday called for a pay cut of players who will be missing from the country's matches. Hayden's comments come after Test captain Pat Cummins, opener David Warner, pacers Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood, will be rested for white-ball matches against Pakistan in March.

"When players are choosing not to play for their country it is a massive flag of concern for your high-performance set-up. I just don't reckon it passes the pub test. The single biggest thing which ties everything together at that level is that you are all really keen to play for your country and if you haven't got that, I actually question whether you have a high performance culture at all," Hayden was quoted as saying by 'The Australian'.

"It just makes it so hard to build all the things you are trying to have like team values, principles, giving a s*** about your mates. I just feel Cricket Australia is being led around by the players lately and that has created a unique set of problems," added Hayden.

Out of the rested players, Cummins, Warner and Hazlewood are scheduled to feature in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 season for Kolkata Knight Riders, Delhi Capitals and Royal Challengers Bangalore, respectively.

But the trio will not take part in the tournament till April 6. Hayden, who worked as Pakistan's batting consultant during the Men's T20 World Cup last year in the UAE, feels 'cherry-picking' the white-ball matches is not good.

"You shouldn't be able to cherry-pick when you want to play for Australia. It doesn't make any sense to me. We all know how important the IPL is and it has its window and I know it can be difficult for players and administrators to operate within the confines of modern schedules, but I still think you can't have your cake and eat it.

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"If you are unavailable to play for Australia, there has to be some accountability. You shouldn't be paid for work you don't do and should have to salary sacrifice. People will say that I played IPL which is true, but it never had an any effect on my availability playing for Australia. I couldn't wait to play for Australia because I spent seven years where I couldn't get in the bloody team," concluded Hayden.