Australia’s batting great Matthew Hayden has caustically criticised batting coach and former Australia cricketer Michael di Venuto for the implosions in both innings of the MCG Test Australia lost to England.
“That’s an unacceptable scorecard. I don’t care if it was 50 millimetres of grass. You need to be better than that,” Hayden fumed on the All Over Bar The Cricket podcast. “Head, Weatherald, Labuschagne, Khawaja, Carey, Green; they’re all at sea with their basic techniques. The only technical thing I see is coming from our bowlers, who look more technically sound than our batters. Why is that?”
Di Venuto has stellar experience, with 25,200 first class runs. The Baggy Green eluded him only because his career coincided with one of Australia’s finest generation of batsmen and he had to be satisfied with nine ODI capa. Hayden emphasised that it was not a personal attack.
“I’m not a fan of him. It’s not a personal thing,” Hayden said of Di Venuto. “I just think for too long there has been an influence in this group around batting, and I don’t feel it’s served the development of the team or the technical element of Test cricket. Not just on green wickets but in the subcontinent, where we’ve been competitive but haven’t had the skill sets required to cope in those conditions,” he added.
He urged him to be more accountable. “At some point, you have to take accountability. That’s the piece I really struggle with the most. It’s like, ‘Yep, it’s green, therefore we’re going to play a certain way’. Or, ‘It’s spinning’ [like in] Delhi a couple of series ago. Every player was sweeping on a wicket that wasn’t turning an inch,” he pointed out.
Steve Smith, though, has staunchly defended the batting coach. “Any criticism of ‘Diva’, [I am] completely against it,” Smith said in June. “He works as hard as anyone. He knows batting inside out.”
Hayden also did not spare the underwhelming Cameron Green and Marnus Labuschagne. “You didn’t see Ricky Ponting batting at three, like Marnus Labuschagne is, throwing his wicket away. There is no fricken chance because … you would have your teammates and your former generation of players saying, ‘Bud, this is not the way we play cricket’,” Hayden said.
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Greg Blewett, the former Test opener, sympathised with Di Venuto. “I’m sure these conversations take place. You would like to think ‘Diva’ has gone to Marnus and said, ‘Mate, do you know how front-on you are? Look at your shoulders and hips. It’s like you’re playing French cricket. Do you want to do something about it? All he can do is give that information to the player, and then it’s up to the player.“