Why Matthew Hayden is an idiot and why we shouldn’t care

This blog post comes terribly late after the incident. But it’s a thought that’s been swirling in my head for a while now.

A few months ago, the Australian cricket team got hammered in India. They lost 0-2.  Their opening batsman, Matthew Hayden was out of form and in his-classy-as-always tone, blamed it in part of on the bad pitches in India, which he said was typical of a “third-world country.” As you can imagine, this remark triggered a firestorm in India. Indian cricketers demanded that he apologize. The Indian public was in a tizzy.  Indian journalists and cricket fans alike slammed Hayden’s statement.

Hayden is no stranger to controversy related to Indian cricket. The previous summer, the Indian team nearly quit their tour of Australia after a fracas involving Hayden, Andrew Symonds, and Harbajan Singh.

So this latest incident shouldn’t have been a surprise to anyone.

Regardless of the all-round anger, there are some issues to consider:

1. Hayden was out of form and blowing off steam. I didn’t see him making a fuss on previous tours when he scored centuries.

2. Why do Indians care about what an Australian says about us? Here’s why. It has nothing to do with criticism;  Indians are more critical of India than anyone else. Yet the minute we hear someone with lower-melanin content than us say something critical, we fiercely defend the country. This is to be expected because we’re a newly successful player on the world scene, as well as only 60 years away from first becoming independent of the British.  Like any country still young in freedom, we’re secretly sensitive about what people say about us, under all our confidence and bravado.

3.  Hayden’s remarks are more a reflection on him than us, and it doesn’t harm us really: Hayden’s out of form, and a jerk. It makes sense he would say what he said. He’s also one of the most unpopular cricketers in the world.  His critiques of India are nothing new. His critiques won’t reduce tourism. He’s just another idiot sportsman blaming his inadequacies on circumstances rather than himself.

Anyway, Hayden has since retired. Good riddance.

Meanwhile– India– we need to get over ourselves. Stop falling over these silly cricketers and go back to reforming our economy, fixing our infrastructure and educating millions.