Hayden vows to uphold cricket's purity

Sydney:

Outspoken Australian opener Matthew Hayden has vowed to uphold what he calls the purity of Australia's baggy green cap in honour of the late cricket icon Bill Brown.

Hayden made the comments as a guest speaker at a function marking the life of former Australian opener Brown, a member of Don Bradman's 1948 Invincibles, who died last week aged 95.

"It (cricket today) has I think tended to lose its purity that this (Brown's) great era of cricket has produced," he told the gathering.

"I would have to put my hand up as well in delivering that and keeping those traditions in the game.

"That's a position I take very seriously. I need to continue on and keep making sure that's strong in Australian cricket."

Hayden was one of the central characters in a tense summer of cricket, highlighted by the racial row involving Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh.

The senior opening batsman was reprimanded by Cricket Australia for calling Harbhajan an "obnoxious weed" in a radio interview during India's tour of Australia.

The International Cricket Council, concerned by the acrimonious Test and one-day series, subsequently announced a "zero tolerance" crackdown on offensive language and gestures in the sport.