Strong advice for Hadlee

Press, 18 February 1986, Page 44

Strong advice for Hadlee

“Pick up your Alfa and tell the seven so-called team-mates who want you to give them a share to go Jump in the lake.” That is the trenchant advice given to Richard Hadlee by an Australian sports columnist, Lawrie Kavanagh, in the Brisbane Courier-Mail.

Kavanagh wrote that not even the most biased Australian would begrudge the New Zealand champion his award for being player of the test cricket series.

Hadlee’s performance was as good as had been seen in Australia for a long time, and if anyone deserved a reward above and beyond the rest of the players involved it was the Canterbury allrounder, Kavanagh wrote.

Without a doubt, Hadlee was the king of the series, the column proclaimed. “Fair dinkum, Richard, any person who would begrudge you that car, in

your benefit year no less, does not have his or her priorities right.

“But if the seven mates persist I have a suggestion. Buy three Alfa hubcaps to go with the four you already have and give them one apiece.

“It would be more than they deserve, but it may keep them quiet”

If Hadlee felt hard done by in his own country, Australia would welcome him with open arms, Kavanagh claimed. This was not only because he was a champion cricketer, but with his professional approach and mature cricketing behaviour he could help curb Australians’ desire to act like emotional imbeciles when runs were scored or appeals made. “So keep that car, Richard, and let the seven mates go to the devil,” Kavanagh contended.

“You deserve it, and so do they.”