Jaques Says You Have To Hand It To Hayden, He's Cool In A Crisis

The Sunday Age

Sunday January 20, 2008

Chloe Saltau

THE third Test was not Phil Jaques' finest hour, which is possibly because he was missing Matthew Hayden. Jaques reveals in the January edition of Inside Cricket magazine that Hayden, his future opening partner, saved his life at the 2006 boot camp, a commando experience that has since acquired mythical status in Australian cricket folklore. Jaques almost perished because of a miscommunication with the instructor on an abseiling expedition.

"I basically thought he said to hang there, which meant taking my hands off the rope and the guy at the bottom takes you out, which is something you just do on the practice wall. I was on a 70-metre cliff and I just said, 'Are you sure?' and he said, 'yeah, yeah'," Jaques told the magazine.

"By the time I put my hands back on the rope I had no control, it was flying through my hands - I had gloves on but it burnt straight through them. I froze for the first five metres, couldn't say anything, then yelled like a cartoon character for the next 25 metres.

"Haydos didn't see me at first because I was over the top of an overhang. I came flying over the edge and he managed to pull the rope when I was about five metres from the ground. He was quite calm about the whole thing, but I was in complete shock.

"Matty literally saved my life. I'm glad he was on the ball so I could have the chance to walk out to bat with him a few more times."

The pair is likely to be reunited in Adelaide for the fourth Test when the Queenslander's dodgy hamstring has healed.

No colour bar

HAYDEN'S replacement for the Perth Test, Chris Rogers, is living proof that budding batsmen should not be discouraged if they are a little hard of sight. The Optometrists Association of Australia has leapt to the defence of the colourblind, declaring that the condition should not be an impediment to reaching the top in cricket.

The Age reported last week that Rogers is partially colourblind, wears spectacles in the field and sometimes loses the ball in the maroon seats when he is playing at the Gabba. Bill Ponsford was colourblind, as are one in 10 cricketers in Melbourne's Premier competition. "Nearly half . . . did not know that they suffered from abnormal colour vision," said Shirley Loh from the OAA.

"If you suffer from a red/green colour deficiency you will have trouble seeing the ball against the grass or against trees, or seating in the background of the cricket pitch," she added. "Using sightscreens behind the bowler can change the contrast to aid you in seeing the ball. If you are fielding, place yourself in a position where you are able to field the ball before it hits the ground."

PCB talks up tour

THE fate of Australia's autumn tour of Pakistan will not be decided until after elections are held in the Islamic republic next month, but the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, Nasim Ashraf, has told The Daily News in Pakistan he has "personally met the Australian high commissioner and he has assured me that the tour will take place as scheduled". But, this scenario becomes more remote with every suicide bombing, of which there have been two, in Karachi and Lahore, over the past week. A neutral venue appears the most likely setting for the three-Test series, even though Ashraf has so far refused to consider one.