Jonty Rhodes pokes fun at Matthew Hayden over his injuries

The cricketing world was recently shocked by the pictures of an injured former Australian cricketer Matthew Hayden. The 46-year-old lost his balance while surfing on a family holiday and sustained injuries on his forehead. Hayden also sustained spinal injuries during engaging in adventurous sports in Queensland and said that he “dodged a bullet”. His son Joshua was with him when the accident occurred off Stradbroke Island on October 5.

He also tore C5 and C4 ligaments in his neck. The former dashing batsman posted his pictures on social media saying he was fine but while everybody else was praying for his speedy recovery, one of his cricket colleagues had a different take on the issue.

Former South African great Jonty Rhodes poked fun at the two big scars that Hayden sustained on his forehead. The former cricketer asked whether Hayden was wearing a map of the Indian coastal state of Tamil Nadu on his forehead and also asked the “commitment” he showed to get them on.

Replying to Hayden’s photo on Instagram in which he is lying down with a neck brace on, the 49-year-old Rhodes said, “is that a map of The Tamil Nadu coast you are wearing on your forehead? Real commitment budy!!! Some of us softies take the easy option and just get tattoos!!”

Here’s Matthew Hayden’s Instagram post

Here’s Jonty’s comment

Hayden, a former player of the Chennai Super Kings

It can be mentioned here that Hayden had a significant connection with Tamil Nadu during his playing days as he has represented the state-based Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League in the past. He scored 189, 572 and 346 runs respectively in the 2008, 2009 and 2010 seasons of the tournament.

It was also in Chennai in 2001 that Hayden had slammed his first Test double ton (203). Hayden played international cricket between 1994 and 2008 and scored over 15,000 international runs in 103 Tests, 161 ODIs and nine T20Is. He has 40 international hundreds to his credit. In the ODIs, his opening partnership with wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist was something the bowlers of their times had dreaded.

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