Veteran Team India cricketer Robin Uthappa has recently revealed an incident when former Australia batter Matthew Hayden didn’t speak to him for 2-3 years following a sledging incident. Going down the memory lane, Uthappa recalled a series of games in 2007 when there was a lot of sledging when the teams faced.
It was the same year when the Men in Blue, led by MS Dhoni, defeated Australia in the semi-final of the T20 World Cup in South Africa. The two teams also locked horns in a seven-match ODI series and a one-off T20I in the same year. Robin Uthappa recently revealed how things turned ugly between him and Aussie opener Matthew Hayden during a chat with stand-up comedian Sorabh Pant on his YouTube show ‘Wake Up with Sorabh’.
Hayden didn’t speak to me for years – Robin Uthappa
Indians showed great character in that game giving it back to the Australian cricketers. First, it was Gautam Gambhir and then Robin Uthappa raised the heat trying to get into the skins of the opposition cricketers. Talking a walk back, Uthappa revealed that the toughest of all was sledging Matthew Hayden, who was his inspiration growing up.
“I remember Haydos was batting and in that game, he was going at me and that is when I decided, ‘Ok, I’m going to give it back’. So, when they came to bat, I was giving it. And it got to Haydos at a point, while he was batting,” he stated.
Adding further, Robin Uthappa said how in the heat of the moment, the duo was involved in a heated altercation after which Hayden didn’t speak to him for the next few years.
“He said something to me which I’m not going to repeat and I said something back to him. Hayden did not speak to me for 2-3 years. He would be very cold-shouldered to me. And it hurt. I wanted to win and make them feel as uncomfortable as possible, and I did that. We won but I missed out on interacting with someone who truly inspired me,” Uthappa added.
