Former swashbuckling India opening batsman Virender Sehwag has opined that the Australian cricketers are keeping away from their in-born of habit of sledging Indian cricketers on field mainly because of the lucrative IPL contracts they have been getting regularly for the past few years.

Sehwag, who was a ‘terror’ to many frontline pacers and spinners during his playing days and who had the courage to take on and dominate any bowler in all forms of cricket, is the only Indian to have scored two triple hundreds in tests (third in the world along with legendary Don Bradman and Brian Lara) and narrowly missed the third triple century by going for a lofted shot when he had gone past 290.

Known for their calculated on-field sledging of players of opposite teams in home and abroad, Australians have been surprisingly not doing that during the just-concluded ODI cricket series against India which they lost by a pathetic 1-4 margin.  The 3-match T20 series between the two top teams gets underway tomorrow in cricket legend M.S. Dhoni’s hometown Ranchi.

Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting mastered the art of sledging encouraged his players to take it up in a big way.  Except for at the exchange of a few words between Indian captain Virat Kohli and Aussie keeper Mathew Wade, the series has been very ‘peaceful’ so far.  Sehwag strongly believes that Aussies kept quiet mainly because of the huge monetary benefits they have been reaping through lucrative IPL contracts.

“Aussies are smart enough to realize that sledging or getting into verbal duel with popular Indian players may work against them during the IPL auction as they have been earning huge amounts for the past few years during their IPL stints,” Sehwag said and added that the present Australian team depended mainly on Steve Smith, David Warner and Aaron Finch for its survival.