{"id":919429,"date":"2026-10-07T13:24:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T13:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/919429\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T13:24:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T13:24:13","slug":"cricket-2026-travis-head-blasts-matthew-hayden-aussie-greats-for-putting-bullet-through-test-team-first-test-australia-vs-south-africa-latest-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/919429\/","title":{"rendered":"Cricket 2026: Travis Head blasts Matthew Hayden, Aussie greats for putting bullet through Test team, first Test Australia vs South Africa, latest news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Travis Head has issued a stinging broadside at former Australian greats for being too eager to \u201cput the bullet\u201d through representatives of the current Test team ahead of the highly-anticipated series against South Africa beginning on Friday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The dual-Allan Border Medallist\u2019s rebuke came after former star opener Matthew Hayden\u2019s stinging critique of the selection of Nic Maddinson on a podcast earlier this week.<\/p>\n

Watch Australia\u2019s Tour of South Africa Live & Exclusive on Fox Cricket, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It also follows some strong criticism from an array of former players about the Australians performance against Bangladesh in Darwin, with Head determined to make a point.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s unfairly judged a fair bit from a group of past players, pretty much that put the bullet through a lot of players, which I think is unfair,\u201d Head said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut that\u2019s what they\u2019re paid to do. Some of them need a job, so they go after us, and that\u2019s totally fine. This group is strong enough to deal with those sorts of things. That\u2019s how it is.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate sometimes to have some of that feedback from a generation of players that we have huge respect for, but that\u2019s the caper.\u201d<\/p>\n

The divide between the current crop of stars, which have won 14 of their past 17 Tests despite a dip in the batting averages of several top order stars, dates back to Justin Langer\u2019s axing as coach.<\/p>\n

Hayden was among those bemused that Langer, who he opened the batting with, was moved on in what was said to be a player-driven campaign back in 2022.<\/p>\n

In his latest missive, he declared Australian cricket was \u201cpromoting the greatest pile of mediocrity that we\u2019ve seen in a generation of cricket\u201d.<\/p>\n

Travis Head has blasted Aussie greats for their criticism.Source: FOX SPORTS<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we continue to lay that out and expect that a bloke averaging 35 is going to average 55 in Test match cricket, George Bailey and Tony Dodemaide, you are dreaming,\u201d he said on the All Over Bar The Cricket podcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will just put it that simply. You are frigging dreaming. And you are piling up this dog shit explanation, and you are, in my opinion, disrespecting first-class cricket.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several former champions, including those who broadcast the cricket for Kayo Sports, have noted the pressure players including Marnus Labuschagne are under after a run of outs.<\/p>\n

Head said he could understand why past players including Hayden wanted to stick up for their former coach, but also stressed the current generation were dealing with trickier pitches.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re a very proud bunch of guys who went through a bit of a sticky situation \u2026 a few years back where they stood up and were pretty proud about one of their own,\u201d Head said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut in saying that, we\u2019re playing for the same cause. We have huge respect for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Head noted with bemusement the calls for him to return to No.5 after missing out in the Bangladesh series, saying his record when opening has been strong.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have laughed at a fair bit of it because if a traditional opening batter had pushed out the same sort of numbers in his first 20 innings, I think he would be pretty safe and not talked about in the way that it has been talked about,\u201d Head said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think that that\u2019s a bit of the media these days: it\u2019s not so much a good day, bad day (assessment). It\u2019s a lot of headline stuff.<\/p>\n

\u201c(I) had a great summer (but) missed out that first day in Darwin and I\u2019m no good at it again? So that doesn\u2019t bother me in the slightest. If people want to read it and are happy and not having a dig (so be it), but people are going to click on it if it\u2019s drawing the line through someone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve played more than enough to know that that happens. More of that will happen on Friday if I open the batting and miss out. The same question marks. Vice versa, if I play well, they\u2019ll probably still think I should go to five. But that\u2019s up to you guys.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Travis Head has issued a stinging broadside at former Australian greats for being too eager to \u201cput the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":919430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44,85],"class_list":["post-919429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=919429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/919430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=919429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=919429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=919429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}