Haddin relishing Ashes clash with former coach Bayliss

Jim van Wijk 07:15 01/07/2015
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  • Old enemy: Haddin.

    Brad Haddin has the utmost respect for former coach Trevor Bayliss, but will give his fellow Australian a wide berth until they share a drink after the heat of Ashes battle has died down.

    Haddin worked with Bayliss in New South Wales, where he was made captain, and more recently at Sydney Sixes in the Big Bash League.

    The 37-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman believes Bayliss has all the credentials needed to be a success in the England job, having coached Sri Lanka from 2007-2011 and also enjoyed a spell as interim boss of the Baggy Greens during their Twenty20 series with South Africa in 2014.

    However, Haddin will be going all out to make his first Test series a losing one.

    “Trevor has had a massive influence on my career. It first started as captain as New South Wales, he gave me the chance to do that,” said Haddin, as Australia prepared for the start of their warm-up match against Essex in Chelmsford today.

    “He is a great person and takes a lot of the anxiety out of the changing room and gets cricketers enjoying the game, will never rant and rave, is pretty even tempered.

    “He is a really good appointment, and the bottom line with Trevor is he is a good man.”

    Asked if it would upset him to see Bayliss in an England tracksuit this summer, Haddin said: “No, I could not care less from next month.

    “Trevor is a career coach, he has had some wonderful success with Sri Lanka and New South Wales, everywhere he has been. That is no different to players who want to test themselves at the highest level.

    “I called him to congratulate him on his role and said ‘I will talk to you after the fifth Test’.”

    Haddin continued: “Ashes campaigns are totally different beasts to any other cricket, but no matter what has happened on the pitch with the result, at the end of the fifth Test, the doors of both changing rooms have been opened, and that has happened ever since I have been involved.

    “We will all share a drink with him and maybe he might buy one now he has some pounds.”

    Much has been made of sledging in the build up to this summer’s series, and there is certainly no love lost between the two squads on the field, despite the calls for a truce from both England bowler James Anderson and captain Alastair Cook.

    “They start half of it! What about Jimmy Anderson? He has called for peace hasn’t he? He better look at himself in the mirror,” said Haddin. “I have never played in an Ashes campaign where things have got out of hand, this one will be no different.”

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