The Aussie Wasp

Now I'm taking a bit of a liberty here and extending the remit of my blog. You'll find I do that.

I'm a big cricket fan and the recent retirement of bullying opener Matthew Hayden got me thinking about what his wildlife counterpart might be.

Even though the correlation of colours might be obvious from the above pictures, I think there's more to it than that. The wasp is one of nature's unloved; an 'in yer face' nuisance, a pest, at best annoying, at worst downright dangerous. The same adjectives could be used to describe Hayden and his bludgeoning, belligerent, confrontational style.

Statistics show him as an opening bat of truly legendary status, but aesthetically he was about as welcome to the wicket as a wasp at a picnic. Bowlers tried to wave him on his way early, but more often than not he'd soon be driving them to distraction - usually straight down the ground.

Hitting in the 'V' was his speciality and also provided his downfall. Enticed by pitched up bowling, he was duped repeatedly by Michael Vaughan's short extra cover during the 1995 Ashes series. It happened so frequently that it became Vaughan's equivalent of setting out a sticky jam jar half filled with water - and waiting for his prey to drown in it's own greed and self belief.