The veteran Indian cricketer Robin Uthappa has spoken out about an incident in which Matthew Hayden did not speak to him for two to three years. Uthappa said he was inspired by the former Australian cricketer, but he chose to get under the skin of the big guy. Robin remembered a series of games in 2007 during which there was a lot of sledging as the teams faced off.
Uthappa described how the game at Kingsmead in Durban turned messy. On his YouTube show "Wake Up with Sorabh," Uthappa made the revelations while chatting with stand-up comedian Sorabh Pant.
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“Gauti (Gautam Gambhir) gave it back in that game. Andrew Symonds, Mitchell Johnson, and Brad Haddin got it back from me. Matthew Hayden was the most difficult opponent I faced in that game. Uthappa said, "He inspired me as an individual and as a batsman.”
“I remember Haydos batting and he was going after me in that game, and that's when I said, 'Well, I'm going to give it back.' So I was giving it to them when they came to bat. And it eventually got to Haydos while he was batting,” he said.
“He said something to me that I won't repeat, and I responded with something of my own. For the next two or three years, he did not talk to me. To me, he'd give me the cold shoulder. It was also painful. I wanted to win and make them as miserable as possible, so that's exactly what I did. We won, but I didn't get to meet someone who truly inspired me,” Uthappa said.
Despite the heated moments, Uthappa said he enjoyed playing the game and described it as a "great" period in his career. The right-hander scored 934 runs in 46 ODIs and 249 runs in 13 T20Is, with seven half-centuries to show for his efforts.