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Craig HillThe Immortal Matthew Hayden
January 13th 2009 12:02
By whichever standards are applied, Matthew Hayden will rank forever among the greats of Australian cricket.
To finish with a Test average of 50-plus over 103 matches opening for his country at venues from Barbados to Bangalore to Birmingham and at home in Brisbane is a credit to the 37-year-old's class and durability over 15 years at the top at international level.
His physical presence complemented his sharp tongue and attacking instincts which were fundamental to Australia's dominance of the Test arena for a generation.
It was a period in which he formed a close personal and professional relationship with Justin Langer who had a 'man crush' on his opening partner from Kingaroy in outback Queensland.
Yet Hayden was versatile enough to play the foil to Adam Gilchrist at the top of the order in two successful World Cup campaigns.
His 161 ODIs yielded 6133 runs at 43.81 with a strike rate nudging 79.
Hayden was the first batsman to score more than 1000 Test runs in five successive calendar years (2001-2005) and 380 of his total for 2003 were scored in one innings, then a world record, against Zimbabwe at the WACA Ground in Perth.
He never managed to take a Test wicket with his right-arm medium pacers but the importance of Hayden's role in the field should not be underestimated.
He turned 'mental disintegration' into an art form with his pungent observations from first slip, the specialist position that provided him with 127 Test catches including 39 from the bowling of Shane Warne.
In fact, 'caught Hayden bowled Warne' is the third most common mode of dismissal in Test history involving a non-wicketkeeper, behind 'c. Taylor b. Warne' and 'c. Dravid b. Kumble'.
Hayden took six years to play seven Tests, but announced himself as a world-class batsman in the most unlikely of places, India, in 2001.
His second and third Test centuries - 119 in Mumbai and 203 in Chennai - came a full four years after his debut hundred against the West Indies in Adelaide and sparked a run of five Test centuries in 2001.
Hayden played his cricket extra hard which inevitably led to spot fires and clashes with opponents and officials over the journey.
But there was no more popular figure in the Australian dressing room.
To finish with a Test average of 50-plus over 103 matches opening for his country at venues from Barbados to Bangalore to Birmingham and at home in Brisbane is a credit to the 37-year-old's class and durability over 15 years at the top at international level.
His physical presence complemented his sharp tongue and attacking instincts which were fundamental to Australia's dominance of the Test arena for a generation.
It was a period in which he formed a close personal and professional relationship with Justin Langer who had a 'man crush' on his opening partner from Kingaroy in outback Queensland.
Yet Hayden was versatile enough to play the foil to Adam Gilchrist at the top of the order in two successful World Cup campaigns.
His 161 ODIs yielded 6133 runs at 43.81 with a strike rate nudging 79.
Hayden was the first batsman to score more than 1000 Test runs in five successive calendar years (2001-2005) and 380 of his total for 2003 were scored in one innings, then a world record, against Zimbabwe at the WACA Ground in Perth.
He never managed to take a Test wicket with his right-arm medium pacers but the importance of Hayden's role in the field should not be underestimated.
He turned 'mental disintegration' into an art form with his pungent observations from first slip, the specialist position that provided him with 127 Test catches including 39 from the bowling of Shane Warne.
In fact, 'caught Hayden bowled Warne' is the third most common mode of dismissal in Test history involving a non-wicketkeeper, behind 'c. Taylor b. Warne' and 'c. Dravid b. Kumble'.
Hayden took six years to play seven Tests, but announced himself as a world-class batsman in the most unlikely of places, India, in 2001.
His second and third Test centuries - 119 in Mumbai and 203 in Chennai - came a full four years after his debut hundred against the West Indies in Adelaide and sparked a run of five Test centuries in 2001.
Hayden played his cricket extra hard which inevitably led to spot fires and clashes with opponents and officials over the journey.
But there was no more popular figure in the Australian dressing room.
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