Sydney, Feb 27 Harbhajan Singh reckons that Matthew Hayden's stinging verbal attack at him stems from the frustration of realising that the Australians were "no longer the undisputed champions" and that India was the only team giving them a run for their money.

"Maybe, they realise that they no longer are the undisputed champions of the world. Maybe, they feel the crown is slipping. Otherwise, why a cricket veteran would ask a 19-year-old (Ishant Sharma) to join him in a ring?," he said in reaction to the latest provocation by Hayden.

Hayden called Harbhajan an "obnoxious little weed" and invited Ishant Sharma "into a ring" to sort out issues in an interview to 'Brisbane Radio' yesterday.

He also had a frontal attack on Harbhajan saying, that "his record speaks for itself in cricket... That's why he has been charged more than anyone else who's ever played in the history of cricket..." Harbhajan, who seemed to have read the personal attack by Hayden in entirety, said he preferred to keep himself in control instead of enjoining the matter with the belligerent Aussie opener.

"I don't want it to be a slanging match," Harbhajan said adding that he didn't want to open a pandora's box for a lot that the Australians have said this summer would then come tumbling out.

"But you only need to speak to international cricketers and international teams to know in what opinion they hold Hayden," he said looking at the broadside as just "one more instance of what our hosts have been up to all this summer. (Agencies)