MELBOURNE: Former Australian wicketkeeper Brad Haddin has opened up about the rocky relationship he shared with ex-team coach Mickey Arthur, saying he had three "memorable-for-all-the-wrong-reasons conversations" with the South African before the latter was sacked before the 2013 Ashes.
Haddin, in his newly-released autobiography My Family's Keeper, details about his daughter Mia's illness in 2012, when his position as Australia's No.1 keeper-batsman went to Victorian Matthew Wade as he forced to take some time away from the game.
With Mia’s health improving and Haddin attempting to force his way back into the side in 2012-13 summer, the former wicketkeeper reveals he upbraided Arthur for telling him twice in private that he was "the best wicketkeeper-batsman in Australia" despite still being Wade's deputy.
The 39-year-old says he let go off the first such encounter which took place after an ODI match in January that year, but two months later he snapped at the South African when the coach told him again on the eve of the final Test of 2013 Test tour of India, in which Wade was selected in the playing XI.
"I'd let it go when he said that in Adelaide but this time it was hard to cop," Haddin was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.
"I said, 'Mate, you're kidding. I've had enough of this. You've just told me that I'm the best player in my position and you're not picking me for a Test match. You've got this all wrong. I'm out. Leave me alone.' "I walked away from him past Nathan Lyon, who'd been within earshot of the whole exchange. He said a quiet, 'Good work, Hadds,' as I went by,” the 66-Test veteran writes in his book.
Three months later, Haddin was re-installed as the Test team's ‘keeper-batsman’ and was also elevated to the vice-captaincy.
Haddin says at that time he sat down with the coach to discuss the team combination for the first Ashes Test at Trent Bridge, and according to the former wicketkeeper-batsman should have been a straight-forward conversation between coach and vice-captain about selection took a turn when Arthur added, ‘And just assume that you're in the team.’
“That was a completely bizarre thing to say,” Haddin writes. “Everyone from (selection chairman) John Inverarity down had repeatedly made it plain in public and in private that I was the Australian team's Test wicketkeeper. Not to mention the fact that I was vice-captain!”
“I had no idea what he was trying to get at, but once again I didn't have the time or interest to figure it out. I said, 'Mate, I can't deal with this', and left him to it,” he adds.
However, two days later, the South African was sacked from the coach’s post and was replaced by Darren Lehman. About the development, Haddin writes the decision “wasn't a surprise”.
During Arthur's time in charge, Australia won 10 of their 19 Tests. The catastrophic 0-4 defeat in India was overshadowed by the so-called homework sackings halfway through the trip, in which Arthur, then captain Michael Clarke and team manager Gavin Dovey stood four players down for a Test for failing to complete an off-field task.