By IANS,
Sydney : After being dropped from the Australian squad for the Twenty20 and the one-day series against South Africa Thursday, Matthew Hayden is weighing up his cricketing future.
The 37-year-old Queenslander has averaged just 19.5 in 1-2 Test series loss to South Africa at home.
“My immediate future is to go back home to my family and the people that love me the most and just enjoy this time, to take guard again, it’s been a pretty long last four months,” Hayden said.
“I am going to take the time to get my mind around what the future does hold. I will take my time and make a good decision going forward,” he added.
National chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch said the decision to drop the out-of-form opener wasn’t related to his woeful form during the Test series against South Africa.
“The omission of Matthew Hayden from the KFC Twenty20 and Commonwealth Bank Series squads is not a reflection on his performances in the recent Test series but rather a strategic decision made by the National Selection Panel as we plan for these signature events. His possible selection for the upcoming tour of South Africa will be discussed as with all players when we select a squad after the round of interstate matches at the beginning of February,” Hilditch said in a statement.
“Obviously this is very disappointing for Matthew Hayden and it was not an easy thing to tell him but in the Twenty20 World Cup (in June in England) there will be an emphasis on youth. We still have to manage that very carefully, we still have players on that fringe whether they can play the Twenty20 World Cup and the Ashes (starting in July),” Hilditch said.
“But as far as Matthew was concerned, we thought the time was right to move on in Twenty20 cricket, and in one-day cricket it is our view that he was not going to make it to the 2011 world Cup and we would have made that decision in any event,” he said.