IPL contracts prevented Australians from sledging, revealsVirender Sehwag

New Delhi: An India-Australia encounter without much exchange of words between players, doesn't seem to fit in, isn't it? Yet the whole of the ODI series, that featured five matches, passed within a span of almost 14 days without a pinch of sledging. And on Tuesday, former India opener Virender Sehwag revealed that the Aussies were in fact scared of sledging any Indian player owing to a possibility on losing out on their Indian Premier League (IPL) contracts.

Even the Border-Gavaskar series, held earlier this year in India, had witnessed some heated arguments – the most famous of all them being the 'brain-fade incident'. But then, none was seen between the two sides during the recently concluded ODI series.

"They (Australian players) are scared because of the next year's mega IPL auctions. If they had sledged the Indian players in the ODI series, then the Indian franchise owners might think before bidding high for the Australian players. This can also be a reason for them not to get involved in sledging with their Indian counterparts," Sehwag told in an interview to India TV.

Looking back at the brain-fade issue, Aussie skipper Steve Smith had momentarily glanced at their dressing room whilst taking a DRS call in the second Test match in Bengaluru. Smith explained it as a brain-fade, while criticisms walked in, in favour of the Aussies. The issues started growing so big between the two cricketing rivals that ICC had to intervene to bring in peace.

"I think the Australian team was playing under pressure because they don't have all the great players now. Their team was dependent on two or three players - David Warner, Steve Smith and Aaron Finch.

"Out of these three players, Smith couldn't do much. Also, I think the fair amount of criticism which Smith received due to some of his actions, including the "brain fade" moment during the Test series created pressure on them," Sehwag said.