Matthew Hayden

Matthew Hayden Biography

Matthew Lawrence Hayden is a former Australian cricketer whose career spanned over 15 years. Born on the 29th of October, 1971, the Queenslander was a left-handed batsman and a right-arm medium pace bowler. Hayden had a golden period from 2001-2005, during which he crossed 1000 runs on each occasion.

Background

Hayden played Sheffield Shield cricket for Queensland, playing 101 matches, and scoring 8831 runs at an average of 54.85. He kept piling runs after runs in the domestic circuit that meant that he wanted more and more.

Hayden's first-class career yielded 24,603 runs at an average of 52.57. It seemed like an average below 50 was not known to him.

Hayden was a powerful striker of the ball and was gifted with strong concentration powers. He hit 149 on his maiden first-class innings to announce himself in the world of cricket.

Debut

Hayden made his ODI debut against England in 1993. He scored 29 runs and the Aussies went on to win the game by just four runs.

The much-anticipated test debut came a year later against South Africa, where he scored just 15 runs. The Aussies were hammered by 197 runs. He was eventually dropped from the squad. He was not able to cement his place at the start of his career.

Rise to Glory

Hayden silenced the people who were criticizing his technical abilities by domination the 2001 series against India. He slog-swept his way to 549 runs, which was an Australian record in a three-match series.

Hayden, along with Justin Langer formed a prolific opening partnership for the Aussies.

The best knock of his career came against Zimbabwe. He plundered a mammoth 380 runs to hammer the hapless Zimbabwe side in Perth. His stats at that time were impressive as he got to 20 international centuries in just 50 games.

Club Career

Hayden donned the yellow jersey in the Indian Premier League, where he played for the Chennai Super Kings. In 32 innings, he scored 1107 runs at an excellent strike rate of 137.52. He won the orange cap in 2009 by scoring 572 runs.

Low Points

During the New Year's Test in 2003 in Sydney against England, Hayden smashed a pavilion window in anger, after disagreeing with an umpire's decision to give him out. He was fined for this incident.

He was also charged by Cricket Australia for calling Harbhajan Singh an “obnoxious little weed.”

Retirement

Hayden bid goodbye to international cricket on January 13, 2009. An Achilles heel played a major role in his decision to retire.

He was one of the best openers that the game has ever seen. He ended with 15016 international runs at an average of around 47.45.

Post retirement Hayden has become a commentator and has voiced his opinion for Channel 9.