Lehmann says boorish Aussies were following team orders in World Cup final

Australia coach Darren Lehmann has defended his players following criticism of their behaviour during Sunday's World Cup final win over New Zealand. Photo / Getty Images.

Australia coach Darren Lehmann has defended his players following criticism of their behaviour during Sunday's World Cup final win over New Zealand.

Wicketkeeper Brad Haddin came under fire for his send-off of Kiwi opener Martin Guptill, and a photograph of Haddin and all-rounder James Faulkner mocking Grant Elliott after his dismissal cast a shadow over the Australian's fifth World Cup triumph.

But Lehmann insisted Haddin was following team orders. And he was able to cite the ICC's failure to censure his team as evidence that they hadn't gone over the top.

'He's copped a bit, hasn't he?' Lehmann said. 'No one got reported out of the game, so we must have played it fair. It was a little bit disappointing, but people are entitled to their opinions and you're going to have good and bad times. You accept that and you move on.

'We're happy with the way we played, obviously. We knew we wanted to be really aggressive against them, and look, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.'

But Sportsmail's David Lloyd, who is part of the ICC's umpire selection panel, has added his voice to the chorus of criticism aimed at the Australians.

'I was very disappointed at some of the behaviour in cricket's showpiece event, particularly from the Australians,' he said.

'Watching it on my TV, and as a president of a local league, I know what will happen: this will be repeated in leagues across the land, because the players will think it's macho. It's not.'

Haddin did little to quell the controversy when he told Sydney's Triple M radio
station after Australia's celebrations that New Zealand deserved the send-offs for being "too nice".

"They were that nice to us in New Zealand and we were that uncomfortable," said Haddin. "I said in the team meeting: 'I can't stand for this anymore, we're going at them as hard as we can.' It was that uncomfortable.

"All they were was that nice to us for seven days. I said, 'I'm not playing cricket like this.

If we get another crack at these guys in the final I'm letting everything [out].' I'm not playing another one-day game, so they can suspend me for as long as they like."

Earlier during the same interview, Steven Smith described Haddin as the "drunkest man in the team" as the celebrations continued.

Haddin issued a statement on Wednesday which only partly doused the controversy. "We were celebrating a World Cup win and enjoying ourselves after a long tournament. In hindsight, we should have stayed off the radio. If I offended anyone, it was never my intention," Haddin said in an interview to cricket.com.au.