Ganguly and Harbhajan lash out at "chicken-hearted" Hayden

New Delhi/Kolkata, Feb 5: Former captain Sourav Ganguly and Harbhajan Singh today hit out at Matthew Hayden for claiming that they had chickened out of 2004 Nagpur Test because of the green wicket and said the former Australian opener has written "a lot of crap" to sell his book.

While a livid Harbhajan retaliated by calling Hayden the "biggest chicken hearted cricketer" he has ever seen, Ganguly reminded the Australian of his century on a pacy track in Brisabane and called upon him to behave like an international cricketer.

"I don''t know what these Australian cricketers are up to? Even Ricky Ponting wrote a lot of crap to sell his book and now this guy Hayden is doing so," Harbhajan fumed while giving his reaction to PTI.

The former Australian opener in his autobiography "Standing My Ground" had said that Ganguly and Harbhajan chickened out after having a look at the grassy Nagpur strip during Australia''s tour of 2004. He had even expressed his surprise in the manner in which Harbhajan had "food poisoning" on the eve of that Test which Australia won convincingly.

"Who is Mathew Hayden to judge Harbhajan Singh''s calibre.

I don''t know what he is smoking these days. Probably he was in some kind of trip when he wrote all that rubbish. Should I now give Hayden some money to keep quiet?"

If that wasn''t enough, Harbhajan said that he is still willing to bowl if Hayden has the courage to face him.

"This is an open challenge. Whenever and wherever Hayden wants me to bowl at him, I am ready. Does he have the courage to face me. Because, whenever I have seen him bat against me, he always had a petrified look. Just check the record books in case you want to know how many times I have got him out," he said. More

PTI