By IANS
Brisbane : More than two weeks after calling Harbhajan Singh an “obnoxious little weed”, Australian opener Matthew Hayden has admitted that it was a “mistake” and wants to patch-up with the off-spinner when he visits India for the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Hayden maintained that he had not intended to denigrate Harbhajan.
“I could have used a different choice of words. In 15 years of cricket, I had a slip. It wasn’t to disgrace or denigrate Harbhajan. I could have gone for a different turn of phrase,” Hayden was quoted as saying in The Courier Mail.
“In the end all I did was put fuel on a fire that already existed. It wasn’t necessary. It was a mistake,” said Hayden, referring to his remarks made on Feb 27.
Harbhajan later retaliated by calling Hayden a “liar”.
Hayden said he would like to sort out his differences with Harbhajan.
“What I’d like is to have a chat with Harbhajan when we get to India. I want to sit down with him and see if there is any way we can move forward with our relationship because it hasn’t been great.
“I’d like to see where he’s at the moment and see if we can patch up our differences. Frankly, everyone is sick of it,” he said.
Hayden, roped in by IPL’s Chennai team for a whopping $375,000, said he is keen to play in the million-dollar Twenty20 extravaganza before the Australian team leaves for West Indies.
“I do want to go (India) and there are some key reasons why I want to go. Firstly, it’s only going to be for about two weeks, so that takes away a lot of the revenue we could earn,” he said.
“But right or wrong, I want to use it as a top-up before we go into the West Indian tour. We will still have time to come back from the IPL for a pre-tour camp.
“The IPL will help us. I’ve told Chennai I will be playing. I’m committed to going, if CA (Cricket Australia) allows me to go,” Hayden said.