Brad Haddin always knew his ‘time was done’

Former Australian vice-captain Brad Haddin said he knew his time was up when he pulled out of the 2015 second Ashes Test against England.

Haddin was replaced by Peter Nevill – as he returned home to be with his wife, Karina and ill daughter, Mia.

The 41-year-old hadn’t been in the best run of form in the lead up to the battle against the old enemy and when Nevill produced an almost faultless performance – selectors decided to stick with the latter.

It came as a shock to many experts, cricket legends and fans, but not to Haddin.

“I can only speak from a personal point of view nearly 99 percent of the time you know why you get dropped,” Haddin said.

“It’s not really a shock when you get dropped, sometimes you’re looking to blame other players but I think if you really sit down in a room and look back in a mirror you know why you get dropped.

“I’ve never seen many players get dropped from especially International cricket if they’re performing.

“My situation was no different, the only thing I said in my book, I knew I wasn’t going to play that Test coming back.

“I remember pulling out of the Test match and then saying to my wife, ‘that’s me, I’m done with Test cricket’.

“She said ‘what do you mean?’

“I said ‘this is a brutal sport, it’s tough to get into this team, when you make decisions like that you’ve got to live with the consequences and I was happy with that’.

“I didn’t need anything else, I knew my time was done, I was happy with where my Test career was at and I wouldn’t change the decision. If I had to make the same decision again, I’d do it over.”

Haddin is still involved in the National team as Australia’s fielding coach and says it’s great Test cricket has made it to Manuka Oval for the first time as Australia take on Sri Lanka.

Growing up in Cowra, Haddin was a member of the Canberra/ACT Comets first ever match and went on to play 66 Tests for his country – scoring over 3000 runs and taking 270 dismissals at the top level.

“It’s great for the region,” Haddin said.

“I think the way the ground’s presented has been outstanding.

“It was great on day one where Fathers could bring their kids to the game and say you’re part of history today.

“You don’t get a lot of exposure to First-Class and International cricketers, so for the ground and the region to come up like it has over the last couple days, it’s been outstanding.”

Sri Lanka finished at day two at 3/123 in response to Australia’s mammoth 5/534 in their first innings.

The hosts also broke their drought of centuries made for the summer with Joe Burns, Travis Head and Kurtis Patterson all notching triple figures.

 

Click ‘play’ to hear the full interview below.