'Nonsense if that’s the case' - Matthew Hayden on rumors of CA barring Cameron Green from IPL participation

Former Australian cricketer and cricket commentator Matthew Hayden appealed to Cricket Australia not to prevent Cameron Green from accepting the offers from the Indian Premier League if the franchises are ready to throw millions of money to get his services for their side. Green came under the spotlight during the recently concluded T20I series against India.

Before making his Test debut, Greg Chappell dubbed Green, the 23-year-old youngster, as the best since Ricky Ponting. This past week on Indian soil, Green made a big statement to make a strong case for being selected for Australia's T20 World Cup squad. In the games against India, he provided the Australian side with the perfect start to the innings while opening with the bat.

The young all-rounder, who was told by skipper Aaron Finch to wait it out after being left off the T20 World Cup roster, made the most of his batting position at the top of the order by smashing two half-centuries in the span of three innings, thereby astounding everyone. Green scored 61 in India's first T20 after a stellar series against New Zealand, and he followed it up with an amazing 52(21).

“He hasn’t been picked up in the IPL but I’ll tell you what, bowling all-rounders, they are gold dust. Gold dust. Especially if you can play like this, bang straight out of the middle,” Hayden said in commentary at the start of his innings in the third T20.

Expose yourself to as many opportunities: Hayden

At that moment former India opener Sunil Gavaskar, who was with Hayden in the commentary box, said that there were rumors that Cricket Australia was wary of Green participating in the IPL, fearing that the outstanding all-arounder might falter.

Hayden, who was Australia’s regular at the top-order during his playing days and dominated the position across all formats of the game, scorned the idea, arguing that players must develop under various circumstances. He also said that if he were to be prohibited from playing at the IPL, it would be detrimental to Australian cricket.

“Well it’s nonsense if that’s the case because you’ve got to learn how to play the game. And you got to be playing it. You can’t play it in the nets, you play out in the middle under ground situation like this. Expose yourself to as many opportunities. We used to see it Sunny back in our day playing County Cricket, playing a volume of cricket to get the muscle memory to learn how to play in situations and different conditions,” Hayden emphasized.