IPL and National Loyalties

I find the IPL "clashes" particularly interesting because they seems to pit an intriguing set of players against each other. Take for instance day before yesterday's clash between Hayden and Sreesanth.

Hayden tonked Sree for a few sixes and then got out to him. That was when Sree let loose a volley of endearments at the Aussie. Hayden seemed rather angry at the activity by Sree and in the post-match conference had this to say, "Yeah, I think he is a particularly over-rated bowler. And so he was a great target for us to go at. He always loses his cool under pressure and I think it was a good example of that."

Haydos went on to add, "You don't want to know. It's just so meaningless. Mate ... I am a Test veteran and a one-day international veteran, I have got nothing to answer to him that's for certain,"

I will ignore the fact that a champion sledger cum bully like Hayden found someone sledging an opponent meaningless, unless of course he felt that it was not up to the mark set by the foul mouthed Aussies under Steve Waugh and then under Ricky Ponting. I will also ignore the fact that he seemed to be asking for respect by saying I am a veteran and so on...

I would rather focus on how team mates are going to react to the same. For instance if this incident had led to an altercation, whose side would Dhoni be on? Would Yuvi and Dhoni spar for their respective "boys"? I noticed Fidel Edwards and Gayle eye-balling each other in an earlier match. Would that lead to bad blood on the English tour? Not that I have seen too many matches but I have not seen too many Aussies going at each other. I wonder why?

I don't have any answers but I really am curious about how it will all pan out in the seasons to come. Would all of these alignments lead to any change in the way national teams interact with each other on the playing field? Or would the IPL stint be quickly forgotten once the cheque is in the bank and it is going to be business as usual when players don their respective national colours? Like I said, no answers but the thought is definitely intriguing.