Comment: In defence of Josh Hazlewood and the blown-out-of-proportion press conference fallout

Josh Hazlewood’s comments about Australia’s batting plans have been too heavily scrutinised – prompting suggestions of a split in the Australian team. But here’s what everyone misunderstood.

Josh Hazlewood is a country boy.

He is a little dry, a little laconic and always straight up and down. He is unvarnished. He doesn’t sugar coat things.

Hazlewood’s comments after play on day three where he was asked by a journalist (“Josh, how do you approach tomorrow? What happens tonight, and what do you do tomorrow to try and turn it around?”) have been heavily scrutinised, with Michael Vaughan and Ravi Shastri suggesting it showed cracks in the camp.

Josh Hazlewood was criticised for his post-play press conference. Picture: Getty

“You probably have to ask one of the batters that question. I’m sort of relaxing and trying to get a bit of physio and a bit of treatment, and I’m probably looking mostly towards the next Test and what plans we can do against these batters,” Hazlewood replied.

“I guess the batters are just sticking to what they do, their preparation. They’ll have a hit in the morning and talk around plans of what happened in the first innings, how they can negate that and move forward and improve on that.”

No doubt Hazlewood probably could have answered the question with a bit less ambiguity, but his answer was more a literal interpretation of the question than hinting at any friction with the underperforming batters.

Hazlewood answered the question as a No.11 batsman. As in, ‘Josh, how do you approach tomorrow?’

And Hazlewood’s reply was reflective of a bowler conceding quite frankly, ‘what do you want me to do about it, I’m a No.11?’

Hazlewood is refreshingly honest and the game is better for his laid back attitude and country style.

He’s a fast bowler not a politician and a great one at that.

Australia insist they have a united dressing room – despite the heavy first Test defeat. Picture: Getty

Former England captain Michael Vaughan said the comments were divisive.

“Josh Hazlewood is a great bowler, terrific team member. Publicly, I’ve never heard an Australian come out and kind of divide the camp into batters and bowlers,” Vaughan said on Fox Cricket.

“I’ve never, ever seen that from an Australian player. Any player, really, around the globe.”

David Warner, who was in this dressing room 12 months ago, disagreed and defended the togetherness of the group.

“Those comments probably weren’t warranted, [but] I don’t think there is a divide,” Warner said.

“In the England team, Broady (Stuart Broad) or Jimmy (Anderson) might have come off after a long day and you can start pointing fingers, but I don’t think there is a divide.”

Fox Cricket’s Ravi Shastri and Michael Vaughan were two who picked up on Hazlewood’s comments. Picture: John Appleyard

Only those inside the four walls of the dressing room knows the current mood and camaraderie, but too much has been read into Hazlewood’s comments.

A similar thing happened at this year’s T20 World Cup when Hazlewood gave an honest answer to the hypothetical scenario that Australia would be better off if net run rate forced rivals and eventual finalists England out of the tournament.

Most ex-players 100 per cent agreed with what Hazlewood was saying, but he was shouted down because it didn’t come across as the ‘right’ thing to say.

Hazlewood’s raw honesty might surprise occasionally in this heavily media sanitized world where athletes often read from a script.

But Hazlewood is a team man and a competitor and sometimes you just want a player to tell it how it is.

Originally published as Comment: In defence of Josh Hazlewood and the blown-out-of-proportion press conference fallout