Gilchrist – We never should have gone

Australian vice-captain Adam Gilchrist has revealed most of his squad did not want to go to New Zealand for the disastrous Chappell-Hadlee series.

In a tour where Australia were defeated 3-0 and lost Brett Lee, Michael Clarke and Matthew Hayden to injury, the wicketkeeper batsman told Inside Cricket, the tour was not needed after a long summer and right before the World Cup.

“I’m going to be brutally honest here and say I don’t think too many people wanted it on at all,” he said.

“We’ve had a very hectic summer. We had a brilliant summer in Test cricket, but then we fell away in the one-day series, and that was very disappointing.

“But if you had to be really specific about the Australian cricket team, we probably didn’t need this series at the moment, and it would have been nice to have that little bit of time for everyone to be at home freshening up and getting ready for the World Cup.”

New Zealand commentator and cricketing great, Martin Crowe, however called on the Australians to treat the series with more respect in an interview on Sydney radio today.

“This Chappell-Hadlee Trophy is supposed to be the Bledisloe Cup of cricket,” he said.

“It’s two great families. It’s a series that’s always going to be in the calendar every year, whether it be Australia hosting or it’s New Zealand.

“What we want is these games to be treated with due respect.”