Sydney, July 2 (IANS) Former Australian opening batsman Matthew Hayden is planning a return to competitive cricket with the Big Bash Twenty20 tournament starting in December.
Hayden, who is now a Cricket Australia (CA) board member, retired from international cricket in 2009 and played the first three seasons of the Indian Premier League (IPL) with Chennai Super Kings. In his last IPL season, he scored 93 runs off 43 balls early in the tournament but then struggled.
The Australian reported that Hayden is likely to turn out for Brisbane Heat in the Big Bash. Hayden is adored by Queenslanders and would be a huge drawcard.
Meanwhile, David Hussey confirmed that he would take the big pay cut to play with friends in the Melbourne Stars at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).
Hussey was paid $1.4 million a season to play with the Kings XI Punjab in the IPL — which is 40 per cent more than the budget of a Big Bash side. He has accepted $70,000 to play in the Australian competition.
‘There is something attractive about playing at home. I want to see Australia have a successful competition and I still believe that on the domestic front our cricket is the benchmark in world cricket,’ Hussey was quoted as saying by the daily.
‘The reason I chose the Stars was I made a pact with a group of players to play in the team and hopefully have a successful year and go on to play in the Champions League, where we will reap the rewards in prize-money,’ he added.
