Selectors lack courage to end Hayden's career: Thomson

Sydney, Jan 8 (ANI): Australian pace legend Jeff Thomson has said that the national selectors seem to lack the courage to put opener Matthew Hayden out of his misery and end the opener's international career once and for all.

Thomson on Thursday questioned what game selectors were playing after omitting Hayden from the one-day international series and Twenty20 teams, but refusing to rule the struggling left-hander out of contention for this year's tours of South Africa and England, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

"I have no idea the way those selectors think. They say they're giving him a break to get his form back and all that but, Christ, I don't know. It just seems like a soft option for them. They were going to do the whole deal and are sneaking up on it this way," Thomson said.

Fellow great Doug Walters said he feared the worst for 37-year-old Hayden, who averaged just 19.5 with the bat during Australia's 2-1 series loss to the Proteas, his 39 in Sydney this week his highest score in five Tests.

"That's probably the end of Matthew Hayden. Unless he gets to finish the season off in grand style at the Sheffield Shield, it looks like it might be the swansong for him. I know it's only a matter of time before he was going to do it (get runs) in Test cricket," Walters said.

"The fact is he's not getting any younger ... we've already been beaten by South Africa here. Maybe the''re thinking to blood a new guy against South Africa and then onto England," he added.

But Walters also said Phil Hughes should be high on the list of players to possibly replace Hayden in the Test side. (ANI)