Hayden shrugs off arrogance swipe

MELBOURNE, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Australia's Matthew Hayden today defended accusations of intimidation and arrogance putting their onfield behaviour down to competitiveness and pride.

Hayden was responding to comments from New Zealand's Lou Vincent, who said Australia's recent run of success had gone to the players' heads.

Instead of behaving like ''true champions,'' such as world number one tennis player Roger Federer, Australia resorted to sledging and intimidation tactics and ''hunt like a pack of dogs,'' Vincent told New Zealand radio yesterday.

''I personally think that they think they're bigger than the game. It's all about standing up to them,'' he said.

But Hayden, who struck 117 for Australia against the Kiwis in an eight-run tri-series victory in Perth on Sunday, shrugged off the comments and said fixtures between Australia and New Zealand were always highly competitive.

''If he considers that to be the case, I'm not unhappy about it to be honest,'' Hayden told reporters today.

''It's a great clash between New Zealand and Australia and long may it continue. It doesn't matter what sport, we could be playing -- kick a cockroach from here to the wall and we'd want to be competitive.'' Hayden said Australia had taken the sport to another level after their 2005 Ashes demise at the hands of England, and were rightly proud of their form, which has seen them win all six of their tri-series matches against New Zealand and England.

''We've made a few changes but we've fought very hard since (the Ashes loss) and we're proud of what we've achieved.

''It's come from a lot of hard work over a long period of time and that pure Aussie guts and determination to really stick at it and now we're in a position to dominate.'' Australia face England in their penultimate round-robin match of the tournament at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Friday.

REUTERS PM VC1445