ICC T20 WORLD CUP 2021

November 10, 2021

Matthew Hayden

Dubai International Stadium

Pakistan

Semi Final Pre Match Media Conference

MATTHEW HAYDEN: It's a great pleasure to be on the eve of the semifinal of the T20 World Cup, a very important tournament, obviously a tournament which is significant for every country, especially the four membership nations that have earned their way to the semifinal. Lots of hard work has gone in over a month, and from a Pakistani cricket point of view, we're extremely excited to be coming into the tournament with terrific momentum, fantastic energy, and great optimism, as well. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of this press conference.

Q. This may be a hypothetical, but are you ready to take the Cup for Pakistan and go to Pakistan, a tour you missed in your playing career?

MATTHEW HAYDEN: Yes, this is an extremely important tournament for Pakistan, as it is every membership nation. We face Australia tomorrow, a country which has been incredibly proud to set high standards in terms of delivery on trophies for its country in World Cups, and this is one that it's never got in the trophy cabinet, so lots of high-stake matches ahead of us now.

From Pakistan cricket point of view, I feel that as a nation that loves cricket as much as what it does, and as focused so heavily on cricket, and also to have tournaments including the ones that I was a part of canceled for numerous reasons, it's never more important, and the awareness is heightened that out of this great nation we've got a squad of players here that are ready to perform and are ready to take on not only the semifinals but should we, inshallah, get beyond that, the finals.

Very important for Pakistan Cricket. A wonderful announcement also in the last few days about Australia touring Pakistan in February, something as I just mentioned before that has not been done for I think 28 years now, and I think from an Australian cricket point of view, that is also a really significant moment, not only for Australian cricket but also for Pakistan Cricket.

Q. Just wondered what it's like going up against the country you represented for so long, and in particular your old opening partner Justin Langer.

MATTHEW HAYDEN: Yeah, thank you. It is a very unusual feeling. As you all know, I was a warrior for Australian cricket over two decades, so that does give me the benefit of having wonderful insights not only into these players but also into the culture of cricket in Australia.

I think the roles of roving mentors, coaches across the global platform has been a significant area where other nations can benefit, including our own, can benefit off increasing and improving or adding value to the standards of cricket. We've seen how that has worked through the IPL, for example. A lot of resources coming from -- global resources, not just Australia, but planting into environments, cricketing environments, which improve the overall standard as we as a cricketing community look to try and achieve, and that is a fantastic global platform. The ICC and its various tournaments, the IPL and all the franchise competitions across the world, and the challenge how that then promotes a sensible conversation around the cricket environment and in particular the Future Tours program and how all of these jigsaw puzzles of cricket fit together are complicated and complex organisms.

I guess from my point of view there is the challenge of the heart, the challenge of the mind in terms of what's going to happen over the next 24 hours, but I'll also say very proudly that it's been wonderful to be a part of Pakistan Cricket. We have some incredible young players, a mix of wonderful experienced players in our lineup, and they and the team are performing admirably.

Justin Langer and myself are in similar positions insofar as a national coach or a batting coach never wins a game of cricket. The 11 that take part in the game win the game, and we are backup only. But backup is something that I've really enjoyed over the last month, and I'm looking forward to seeing how this group of young men take forward the challenge of this semifinal match.

Q. I want to ask you, you have a very short period of time with this bunch of players. How confident are you against a very professional Australian team?

MATTHEW HAYDEN: Yeah, thank you. Yes, it is obvious that I have been with the team a very short time, which has meant it's been very important to have a heart connect with the players, the administrators and also the management team here. I felt that that has been achieved, and in many ways that was my individual and personal aim throughout this tournament, to get a sense of the commitment of all the layers within the game in Pakistan and to understand one of the most beautiful things, and that is that raw talent and talent is there in abundance for Pakistan Cricket.

With the right leadership and monitoring and guide, I think this side has got the possibilities, as it's shown so far in the five matches, to take on anyone. The highlight and the obvious eye will go to the first game that we played here at Dubai, where we're playing tomorrow night, against India, and just how under immense pressure, pressure that I guess I never really understood when I was inside the dressing room, only comparable of course to England Ashes Series for Australia, just how these boys wonderfully handled very calmly and very confidently their approach to playing such a huge match.

I think that game really set us up for what has been a really lovely four weeks of solid work, great commitment to training, great purpose in general, and also a wonderful heart connect to Islam and how spirituality has played its role within the Pakistan team as a great guide and tool for everyone to come together.

Very optimistic. I see wonderful potential. I want to make special mention here of a former teammate and colleague, and that is Dean Jones, who gave a lot of himself to Cricket Australia but also gave a lot of himself to Pakistan Cricket, and his closing words to me I can hear in my ears was "These are my boys. This is something I'm so passionate about." He was just beautifully connected to Pakistan Cricket. May he rest in peace now, knowing that fact that he's left a legacy within this team, which will last not only this generation but generations to come.

If I can add any value to those closing comments from Deano, that would be my greatest honour.

Q. Pakistan has won five matches on the trot in this tournament, so from a cultural perspective, how important is the momentum which is now with the Pakistan team against a formidable opposition in Australia, and also in Pakistan's batting lineup everyone has been scoring the runs except for Fakhar Zaman. So are you a little bit concerned about him not firing in the group stages and how sure are you about him finding form in knockout matches?

MATTHEW HAYDEN: Fakhar is a very interesting personality and character, and the longer that I spend time with him, the more that I really enjoy his personality and character. The fact that he was in the Navy for seven years gives you a pretty strong indication of his ability to be able to fight and fight hard. Not only just from a batting perspective but the contributions within a T20 setup is that you have to be as a general policy a two-dimensional player, and Fakhar has I think been the standout outfielder for our team, as well. He saved literally five to ten runs every game, and five to ten runs within a T20 concept and batting lineup, include your own runs maybe 20s and 30s here and there, means that overall he's just been such an important part of the side.

Don't be surprised if you see something incredibly special from him tomorrow, as well, because he is smashing the ball in the nets. In particular I guess if you look at a potential matchup against Adam Zampa, who's been the leading wicket taker in the T20 ICC World Cup, I think that is a fantastic target, an opportunity for Fakhar to really dominate and position Pakistan in a strong competitive state.

Lots of optimism. Already I think he's contributed nicely. Yet to star like some of the others, and that's the great benefit, right, of having an in-form batting lineup. Bear in mind, unlike Test cricket, T20 cricket is just about impact. We've seen Asif come in and smash 24 runs against New Zealand to win you a game, and if you look at his overall stats, you'd go, is he impressive in this tournament or not? But that's not T20 cricket. Making impact is significant, and Fakhar is certainly one of those that can do that tomorrow.

Q. I wanted to ask you about Azam who's obviously had a great tournament and he also has a really good record against Australia in T20 cricket. Can you give us an insight, did you kind of understand how good he was coming into this, and can you give us an insight into what makes him so good?

MATTHEW HAYDEN: Yeah, thanks. Yeah, you're right, he has played quite a lot of cricket against Australia, as have all of our boys, and I think one of the benefits of having an abundance of fastbowling, for example, is someone like Mitchell Starc, for example, is negated in the training sense because of the fastbowling arsenal of Pakistan.

I mean, every day these boys are facing Shaheen Afridi with a new ball in the nets and it's sometimes swinging, sometimes not, but the pace is still there like Mitch. So they get this great opportunity to train against the very highest level of fastbowling, as well.

There's a couple of boys that you haven't seen, as well, in this squad that will play their role in the future, no doubt, as well, in Dahani and Wasim. Lots of practice against great quality bowling I think is a huge advantage, similar to the day where as an Australian opening batsman, JL and I would go to the nets, and guess who we'd face: Jason Gillespie, Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee, and then the bench was Michael Kasprowicz and Andy Bichel, and then the great Shane Warne would come in and knock you over for fun, as well, in the nets, so you're facing the best constantly in practice, which enabled you then to come to play your best game when it came to the actual match itself.

Babar and his personality is what you see is what you get. He's very consistent. He's very stable. He's not overly flamboyant. In fact I'd go as far as to say he's almost the opposite personality to someone like Virat Kohli, who's very animated, very passionate, and very boisterous on the field. Got great control, and he's got a wonderful temperament.

Babar Azam the batsman is highly talented, as you mentioned, and just to give you an insight into that talent, his ability to be able to consistently react to the ball is really second to none that I've seen. He picks up the line and the length of the ball quicker than the average cricketer that's going around, and that's the mark of someone that's a very fine player.

His reaction time, his ability to be able to play, I think, a consistent version of his best self means that he doesn't have to sort of have all the innovations. He doesn't have to necessarily be stroking with any kind of increase or decrease in his temperament. He can remain pretty neutral. And then when he gets into the middle stages of the match, he also has the ability through just good cricket shots to find his natural tempo, which is a strike rate of around 140, 150 and beyond.

It's a great testimony to not only his game but how he can consistently scale his performances through greater stroke rate, increased stroke rate over time.

Q. You would like advice to Australian team to visit Pakistan 2022 in March, your advice to the Australian team?

MATTHEW HAYDEN: I think my advice is that especially from a batting point of view is that surely our batsmen will be queueing up to get on the Pakistan wickets. I was always dreadfully disappointed that I didn't get a chance for my career to play on nice strong flat wickets.

But I think to take a higher level and more serious answer to your question, I feel that it's incredibly important that the country now embraces Pakistan as a full membership nation, that it allows and supports its incredible fan base, really like no other apart from India, similar sort of passion and commitment to the great game of cricket, that it allows itself the Australian unit to come and enjoy the hospitality of Pakistan, to enjoy the overall sense of cricket and the experience of Pakistan, because it's certainly the one regret that I have in my career is not being able to travel to Pakistan as an international cricketer, in spite of having such great and unique challenges, one of which is as a head coach here right now in Saqlain, who's a wonderful spin bowler, and then a myriad of spin bowlers who naturally I would have played to have played in a home environment, Waqar and Wasim, Shoaib, just fastbowling like no other, and as an opening batsman that's what you want to try and face, and to not have the opportunity to do that in Pakistan is a regret of mine.

Embrace it, be a part of the future of Pakistan Cricket, and it's a hugely important part of the cricket community. I'm sure that they are looking forward to traveling to Pakistan.

Q. I just wanted to ask, you have observed Shaheen Afridi from close quarters over the last month. What do you think is his biggest quality, and why do you think opening batters across the tournament have struggled to get him away?

MATTHEW HAYDEN: Yeah, his high-quality pace is most certainly part of his arsenal, and the white ball doesn't swing for a long time in T20 cricket in particular it seems to be a number of balls, not a number of overs. Those number of balls, though, can be destructive, as we saw from his delivery to KL Rahul, one of the best balls that I've seen ever, apart from the last two or three months of observing cricket in this country and in the UAE. He's got that ability like every good strike bowler to be able to commit to wonderful pace, which means that his preparation, his recovery and his just ability in general to be able to focus on delivering fastbowling day in, day out, and Vernon Philander has also done a really wonderful job in preparing him for that, has meant that he's been a consistent performer in international cricket.

The challenge, of course, for every fastbowler is the cricket program. Unfortunately because there is so much cricket, there is that risk of over-bowling and just burnout in general. It'll be careful management for Pakistan to manage a primary asset like Babar Azam, like Rizwan, like Fakhar and also Shaheen, guys that are playing day in, day out international cricket need to be carefully monitored and carefully secured as assets for tournaments like the one that we're facing now and also tomorrow.