This would be a sad way for Brad Haddin to finish

I feel sorry for Brad Haddin. I know, they are not the words you may expect to see written by an Englishman given that, in certain quarters, the wicketkeeper is viewed as the walking embodiment of all that is distasteful about an Australian cricketer.

Unashamedly brash, unapologetically competitive and uncompromisingly committed, the New South Welshman only has to appear on the field to wind up opposition supporters and, dare I say it, a few of his peers in the opposing ranks.

This is probably more to do with his nationality – admit it, the stereotypical English cricketer isn’t an Aussie’s cup of tea – but deep down, any knowledgeable cricket fan will respect Haddin as a performer.

Solid behind the stumps and a very dangerous counter-attacking batsman from number seven, he’s been a pain in the side of many, and central to the resurgence experienced by his country over the past 18 months.

Not too bad a lot, but sympathy is still my overriding feeling after hearing the news of his demotion, with Peter Nevill keeping his place for the third Test in Birmingham.

On one hand the Australian selectors should be offered a hand of applause for their decisiveness when it would’ve been easy to reinstate Haddin after he missed the Lord’s victory.

The answer may lie in the last word of the above sentence, the commanding win providing no need for emotion to be introduced and every justification for a hard-nosed approach.

Few, when it comes down to it, could really argue with such a decision and, as is often stated, those charged with picking teams are expected – whether or not they do is a different matter – to be objective in their deliberations.

Yet if nothing else, Haddin’s relegation to the substitutes bench and the enforced wearing of a gaudy fluorescent bib reinforces the view of professional sport being a particularly cruel mistress.

Passing judgment from the sidelines is an easy business, with sport being a fertile topic, so this matter will no doubt provide plenty of ammunition but it is easy to forget that an individual’s career is, in all probability, having the curtains drawn through no real fault of his own.

37 years old with a batting output that has been in steady decline from the halcyon days of the 2013-14 Ashes, it doesn’t take a genius to work out that his days in the national side were most likely numbered. But while the Cardiff defeat didn’t show him in his best light, that was the case for a number of his teammates.

Demotion on such evidence, and we’re not talking a shift in team dynamics as was the case with the Shane Watson/Mitchell Marsh switch, wouldn’t have been delivered so soon.

Another below-par effort and result to match would’ve seen pressure placed not only on Haddin but, as that is mere conjecture, it is the external matters which add a layer of pathos to the whole situation.

Personal business should remain private and, cliché or not, sport is nothing more or less than exactly that, but it’s a shame the end result is one of such severity.

Haddin may be fully accepting of such a move and be grateful for what has been a productive career, and so he should be, but such a dramatic culling, should this prove to be the end, has the capacity to jar.

Sportsmen don’t take too readily to being dropped and especially when the thought is yet to enter their psyche, but by all accounts Haddin has taken the news well – if that is the right way of putting it – and I can think of a few who would’ve created a petulant stink should they have been in his shoes.

What is clear is Australia look to have found a ready-made replacement in Nevill.

His work behind the stumps at Lord’s was neat and tidy, and there was a freshness to the way he helped himself to a few at the expense of a tiring England attack.

Time moves on and sport waits for nobody, it is only the select few who are immune to the selectors’ axe.

Not quite ‘the King is dead, long live the King’, but you know where I’m coming from.