Brad Haddin drops hints on retirement post-2015 Ashes

Australia’s first-choice wicketkeeper Brad Haddin is contemplating retirement after next year’s Ashes in England with an aim to successfully defend the urn.  “I’ve enjoyed being part of the Australian group. We’ve got a big schedule with the World Cup and Ashes and they’re as big a carrot as you can have put in front of you from a cricketer’s point of view. I’d like to be part of that, after that it’d be fair enough to say it’s pretty close to the end there,” Haddin was quoted as saying in the Big Sports Breakfast weekend radio show. Haddin admitted to being emotionally drained earlier this year after winning back his position in all three forms of the game but said he was now revitalised. “I dont think I was ever going to retire, I still think I’ve got a lot of cricket in me. After the emotional and mental drain of coming back and playing the way we did in the Ashes, from where I’d come from to get to that point I just hit a wall,” Haddin added. “It wasn’t physically, it was more emotionally - I just needed to do nothing for a while. It took more out of me than I thought to get back. Now I feel as good as ever, it was just the emotional drain of coming back and getting to where I got.” Haddin is on his way to recovery as he practised rolling on his right shoulder, which he injured just over three weeks ago in the UAE. “The reason behind that was to see if it would stay in the joint and it did, it’s all moving in the right direction, which is good,” Haddin said. Haddin returns to action tomorrow in a Sheffield Shield game for New South Wales against South Australia. PTI