Let us face it. Is it not true that 300 million of us live below the poverty line. Why should it hurt us when a foreigner says the truth and his admiration for those real indians. Stop the hypocracy and do something about those wonderful human being. Don't waste your time going after Hayden,

India, a 61 year young democracy writing its destiny after independence. Sure there are imperfections but it is also one of the most progressive countries in recent history of mankind as evident in its growing political and economic clout. What has Australia accomplished in last 60 years? Plight of aborigines / discrimination - should we call Australia primitive? Politics has gone mad! Hayden's misadventure - making an irresponsible statement. Honor is not claimed it is bestowed by people for your actions. Hayden has been measured and found wanting in more ways. For those, whose glasses are half empty and who believe that we should recognize the imperfections of our society, fine. But first, we dont need a jackass who talks from his a** to preach us. We know what we are! Second, no one questioned what is India? Hayden's views at best are debatable. Folks commented on Hayden making such uncalled for statement. In that, they have not been found wanting. I call it, how I see it. Jai Hind

What Hayden has said is absolutely correct. A third world or even poorly rated country. Thuogh we are one billion strong country, the way we live here is quite depressing. A country with a number of divisions in society; reservation; group/section-oriented policies , still boasts its constitution as providing equal rights to all. A country which was under foreigners' rule for hundreds of years, still elects a foreigner to its parliaments. A country lost a major part of it during partition, still encourages infiltration and consequent demographic changes for its further division. A country buffetted by number of terror attacks in recent past, still live shamelessly. A country where a number of institutions, meant for very survival of a nation, already plagued with pliable and second rate people need no better Adjectives than this.

Third world or not, he needs a third umpire.

If that's what he thinks then he should NOT BE ALLOWED to pay in IPL. We don't want him in our 3rd world country.

well done Jay.. I fully agree with you

OMG, here we go again.

Do you guys and even Hayden know what does 'Third World Country' mean? I do not think so!! The term Third World does not relate to poverty. It relates to countries who are non-aligned. First World countries are those which are aligned with western powers like USA, UK and most of NATO countries. Second World signifies countries that followed the communist bloc ideologies. And Third World are countries that are not aligned to either the NATO or Warsaw Pact countries - hence NON-ALIGNED. And if you know your history, India is one of the three founding members of the non-aligned movement, along with Yugoslavia, Egypt and Indonesia. it was the famous Nehru-Nasser-Tito-Sukarno nexus that started the Third World i.e. Non-Aligned Movement. You are all wrong! More so is Hayden who has the brain of a fish!

India is not third world, but the people are third class who think like that. Get your facts right and do the right thing

well, Mathew Hayden has very comfortable and conveniently forgotten the 4th world environment in which the indegenous australians live in; he has very conveniently forgotten how the Gen Y instead of going to school have taken up drugs and become junkies spreading xenophobia and murders on the streets; He has very comfortably forgotten, Australia lacks basic infrastructure such as OFC network and decent telephony. ofcourse australia has a better life style but its all debt and chinese $. Without China importing Aussie raw material, aussies may not have enough money to survive. so hayden cut the hypocricy and look into the environment you live in. Racism will not survive in this competitive world and at the end of the day you will need the indian $ after the 20-20 so just buckle it up!

Do you want to compare Australia with India or do you have doubt about status of India? Check the line for visa in front of Australian high commission in India and the same in front of Indian HC in Australia for Australian people (not Indians who successfully begged Australian citizenship and got it). Also compare how many Indians are there in Australia as permanent resident and the same for Australians in India... Got your answer? There is no shame to admit if your parents are poor but it’s a huge sign of immaturity and lack of self confidence to ignore facts and pretend that you are from rich parents.

Some may call the exit of most Indian's to foreign land as natural choice or some may call those leaving India for greener pasture as opportunist. There has been no effort to collect statistical data on considering feeling of those Indians who leave India for the best. May be I can give my personal view as no statistical information is available. I doubt any one is happy to leave his/her country for better opportunities as he/she has to adapt to new conditions. Some can presume that most fly to greener pastures for money and better condition. Money may be factor but most have left India for better working condition which are at times difficult to create in India.Some may say that we can fight, however most do not like politics in their day to day activities.The day we recognize talent not related to country/religion/region/cast that day India will make its first step towards development , until then we will never be developed.

India is there GREAT and PROUD enogh,. IGNOR this Heyden

The list of our mismanagement in resourced relate nation is endless. Most may we cannot clean the mismanaged system or most may take the best option to live in US/UK.The economic slowdown is the right opportunity to implementation of management of resources earnestly. We should forget to dream that GOD will do any good and we have to clean our own country as no one else is going to help us. This is also the high time to believe in yourself as all religion teaches us that there is possibilities even in impossible circumstances. The elder generations should initiate the process of including able younger in development. The able younger excludes those who need reservation or jack to get into the development system. We need to buld army of developers and thinkers to give India its true place.May be my above thoughts also falls on deaf ears. As even today most Indians take pride in being citizen of other developed country rather than being called Indians.

Heyden, or for that matter any player from any country is a ambassador in disguise. India is a third world country and definately has multiple sets of problems, but totally out of context remarks should always be avoided by any player. They should just stick to the game and comment about the game giving a non-controvertial and neutral point of view, which will be help the game in general and earn them and their country respect. It is to be understood that every one has self respect be it poor, or be it rich. Be it a PM or a peanut seller, and no sane human being will like to discuss his personal problems with an unwarranted individual or accept an unwarranted remark. Heyden is not a fclose riend or a member of family and definately not some one who cares about India. Just because one can talk, doesnt mean one has to talk.

I am proud to be Indian but we have to get our facts right before we take Haydens' comments in wrong way. May be we should take Hayden comments in true prospective and then work to make India well managed country. A well managed country can be more than developing countries by utilizing its resourced in the right place. We like it or not, we are not poor because we do not have resourced but we are poor because we do not know to manage our resourced. This failure of management is related to overall development of India and not managing a company or cooperate house. Look closely in to our development related projects , they take more average time than needed. The simple example the river Yamuna is Delhi is more like a drain or dumping ground for waste. The river can be kept clean but most of us says who give a shit, I have water and air purifier and a air conditioned car. In day to day activities we have the attitude as chalta hai.

There is nothing to feel proud about my country( India) and there is nothing to feel hatred too. Why would you contemplate on hayden when our own leaders are spewing dirty words on each other and against each state. May it sonia ji or advani ji, They all are in the same category. Haydens words are true, His observation is brought into light and we need many more haydens to make our leaders guilty and ashamed that they did'nt do any good job to save our country. I've never seen any indian cricketers doing charity than the australian's do in our country, Let it be steve waugh or gilcrist, they have donated enough to save our children.

It is encouraging to see that a good number of posters to this column agree that we are a third world country. Even better to see that many feel the real answer to Hayden is to work towards making this country a better place. That would be the best course of action. This is not the time to boast about our few achivements....rather work hard to restore our country to a good standing in the commity of nations. There is so much to be done.

His remarks do show his mentality of racism. The main reason for their fraustration is that they were beaten by India very badly. Another reason for his dirty remarks is that he must be thinking he does not have to tour India. He had made his dirty remarks during his episode with Harbajan Singh and then "felt" sorry before he toured India. He must have felt that the Indian crowd would boe him if he did not feel sorry for his remarks. Now that he has left India, he along with his captain started to badmouth India. Dog's tail cannot be straightened even if it is put in a rigid pipe.

Dude,There is context to everything. There was no context for Hayden to call India a "Third world" country. This wasn't a blast of insights from this burly aussie. Have a bit of self respect.If you think this is a very honest statement, go to Australia and talk about their racist past and current. See what reaction you get. You will be hit over head. Go to US, mid-west and talk about their obese people and guess where you are going to be slapped. Go to Britain and talk about their imperial past. You will be fking deported.Everyone has faults. When you go to a host country, you need to have some sense of what needs to be told and what is not.Hayden clearly knows that he can walk all over Indians because Indians, with their broken down education system, tend to be full of self-doubts.Learn something from Bhaji and Dhoni. If you want to win you got to have self respect.

What Hayden said is absolutely true! When we speak about double digit growth, let us not forget our vast section of deprived people who cannot but only dream of a safe future for his children! Hayden comes from a country which takes care of her people unlike India!

Third world country pays you 3 lacs US Dollar for 45 days in IPL, which Australia can't and if you really worried abt the penuts hotel guy , keep doing charity, who says no to you, in Australia people play some music organs in street and asking for money ...

About 80% of Indian family live with a monthly income of Rs 2000/- or below. About 34% of Indian families survive with less than Rs 450/- a month. Only 0.5% of Indian population is getting benefitted by much hyped IT industry. ~18% of Indian farming community has been removed from farming without giving any alternative profession. Do these people who have computer, internet connection at home and have lot of time to fight Hayden in the web really want to know India? Get off from your cozy home and travel to any village in Orissa or MP or UP or Bihar or Andhra or TN or almost any other states and then start posting comments against Hayden to feel proud about India. If you are really hurt by what Hayden has said, then start thinking and do something meaningful for the country (by opposing corruption, not taking bribe and not allowing ur parents taking bribe and doing crime, and so on) than to oppose Hayden in internet.

By cleaning dirty linens for Western companies and earning some money by few people does not mean the country is doing great. A recent (2008) International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) report ranks India at 66 out 88 countries for hunger. That report also points out that economic prosperity of a state in India does not always translate to a better situation for common people. Highly prosperous states like Gujarat/Karnataka are worse in hunger index as compared to less developed states like Assam. India now has the highest death due to diarrhoea in the world. Nearly two-third of India has no access to sanitation even today. In terms of malnutrition among children, India today found itself ranked with Ethiopia. India is now home for one third of the world’s 146 million undernourished children according to a recent Unicef report. The “Corruption index” for India is deteriorating further; violent movements all over the country are a routine feature now. Try to accept reality.

The word third world countries has been discredited. It is respectful to call it a developing country..third world sounds like the old epithets used as slurs - example negro- they are called blacks now.. So Hayden needs to learn political correctness