By IANS
Sydney : Cricket Australia (CA) officials have been labelled “sooks” (an Australian slang for a weak, timid person) as two of country’s sporting greats described the warning given to Matthew Hayden as “over the top”, the media reported.
CA has been under fire after Hayden was reprimanded for his description of Harbhajan Singh as an “obnoxious little weed”.
Former Test firebrand Jeff Thomson expressed his displeasure over Hayden’s official reprimand while legendary rugby league hardman Tommy Raudonikis called country’s cricket administrators “sooks”.
Both said political correctness would turn the game’s characters into robots.
“Every time someone says something, some official pulls him in,” Thomson was quoted as saying in The Daily Telegraph.
“I am sick of political correctness. Someone asked Hayden what he thought of Harbhajan and he gave his view. Aren’t you allowed to give an opinion any more?”
Raudonikis, the former Australian league enforcer, slammed the cricket officials.
“They are so weak. They are dead-set sooks,” Raudonikis said of cricket’s officialdom.
“Aussies are known for our toughness, and for calling a spade a spade, and there is nothing wrong with that.”
South African batting legend Barry Richards was incredulous at the Hayden sanction and claimed cricket was being made to look “stupid”.
“The way they are going they will be having tea and cucumber sandwiches on the pitch. Test cricket has got to be about some sort of clash,” Richards claimed.
“The trouble with all this reporting and hearings is that teams are using them to try and get some ascendancy. It is all about scoring points at the moment.
“This political correctness is just a lot of nonsense.”