Australian officials hold IPL responsible for players' injury

Melbourne, May 22 (UNI) The IPL has come under severe cricticsm from the Australian officials who held the Twenty20 tournament responsible for the injuries that their players are carrying ahead of their tour to West Indies.

While opener Matthew Hayden has already been ruled out of the first Test due to a recurring tendon problem, Australia's team physiotherapist Alex Kountouris confirmed up to half the side was carrying niggling injuries.

''To be honest, he (Hayden) is not the only one with tendon problems in the team. You would find at least half of them would have some sort of tendon injury,'' Kountouris was quoted as saying by the 'Sydeney Morning Herald'.

''They have all got little tendon things and you can throw a blanket over six or seven of them. It is a bit of luck, to be honest; some people get away with them and some don't,'' he said.

But Hayden's injury could be blessing in disguise for Brad Hodge, who was called midway from the IPL as a replacement for Michael Clarke.

''The way things are going. Hodgey could find himself in a Test spot that he might have thought passed him by,'' captain Ricky Ponting said.

Hayden is certain to miss the first Test and it is possible he could find himself out of the three-Test series as the medical staff fear that it may be genetic.

''There is a belief there might be some sort of genetic disposition to getting tendon problems,'' Kountouris said.

''There is a lot of research now going into genetics, looking into the gene pool and whether that has anything to do with it. It is not like a muscle strain when you can predict healing times.

''They don't actually heal, they sort of hang around. At the moment, he has tried running a few times and it gets stirred up, so we are trying to be as conservative as we can.

''He has had other tendon problems in the past so it wasn't a surprise,'' he added.

Before the summer, Hayden had played 86 consecutive Tests, the seventh-longest streak in history, but there are now grave concerns the wear and tear of 15 years of international cricket are rapidly catching up with the 36-year-old.

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