The current discussion over Matthew Hayden’s form is moot. He is not in form. His decline in run making ability goes back over 40 innings. In that time he has averaged almost 20 runs less than his career high. The last 20 innings have seen a steeper plunge.
His 78 ball innings of 31 in the first innings of the 3rd Test was agonizing, not so much for the paucity of stroke play, the lack of timing and balance or the scoring rate, but for the pain he was putting himself and his supporters through.
Hayden can still bat, a bit, but not to the elevated level of his genuine greatness.
Anyone who averages 50 opening the batting and makes 8,000 runs can be considered one of the very best. Despite the growing criticism of the selectors who continue to sustain him, the media of all locations, and many fans, he continues to delude himself.
We all want our champions to leave us in a blaze of glory, or at the very least, somewhere near the top of their game.
Legends who soldier on, refusing even a sideways glance in the mirror or having their closest allies prop them up with affection rather than the truth, so often leave us with tainted memories. That is not fair to the participant or the audience.
Greg Chappell broke the great knight’s record and exited stage right in the same match. DK Lillee broke bones and records and left with a reputation unsullied by aching joints and slowing muscles.
Rod Marsh joined his long time team mates after a brief encore in one day cricket, his ‘keeping still precise. Steve Waugh marched on at the start of the decline but re-climbed the mountain for a final hurrah.
Graeme Langlands’ 1975 Grand Final horror haunts me as a career one game too many, and the tragedy is that we remember this horror above his lengthy and sparkling career.
Ian Chappell said “You just KNOW when it is time to give it away”, but in the era of barrow loads of cash and buckets brimmed with fame, fully professional since teenage and narrowly educated players, it appears that most of them simply don’t know when enough is enough.
Mind you, it is not easy to terminate employment, a job, a career, a way of life without suffering some pain, some indecision.
It is impossible to be objective about just such a decision. Playing, training, preparing mentally and physically, touring, frequent flyer points, team meetings, team mates, team victories and widespread notoriety become a way of life.
The game and the lifestyle is not so much WHAT you do as WHO you are. It can take years to rid your brain of the desire to be out in the middle taking strike or marking your run up.
Retired insurance salesman can find it hard to fill their leisure time after a lifetime of routine, of security, of making a living. Professional sportsmen are no less restive, maybe even more so because at an age somewhere short of middle you are suddenly, and I do mean suddenly, cut off from that which sustains you.
The competition and the camaraderie finish in the 30’s mostly (Hayden is 37 and had a long metaphorical and literal innings) and life goes on for another 50 years if you are lucky. Professional cricket has an astonishingly high rate of suicide, there are books dedicated to the subject. They cannot live properly without the game, or so they think.
Whatever the rationale for finishing a career it is always more palatable if the final call is made by oneself rather than the axe wielding selectors tormented by the howling press.
There does not seem to be an overwhelming amount of realistic or structured observation coming from the Australian team or those that surround it at the moment, but it would be fitting and proper if Matthew Hayden, the imposing left handed, record breaking Aussie opener hesitated in front of the mirror and looked deeply into his soul and asked “can I keep doing this to myself and my fans?”.
No one plays forever.
Simon
Guest
Haydos can't be blamed. If I was`selected I would play. Who wouldn't?! It is not just the playing for Australia but also the financial incentives. Which one if you would turn down ?$15000 for 5 days of cricket on the best grounds in the world? The selectors need to take the brunt if criticism, not the player. Also when I played I always felt I could turn my form around with 1 good innings. I am sure Haydos feels the same. Yes he should go but why should he have to make the decision? I think if my body could and I loved playing still, I would keep playing.
ChrisGS
Guest
Hayden might have kept his spot because of the forced withdrawals of Lee and Symonds. I suspect Ponting dearly loves to keep his as many old stagers close to him as possible as he tries to negotiate this final couple of seasons of his captaincy and career, which will be about him trying to manage a decline in standards from "super-human" to "staying in the best 3". He might even believe that a "Generation Next" is about to come galloping over the hill to breathe new life into his team and captaincy. Based on Bollinger's performance today that's a pretty forlorn hope. I think we'll be waiting a few years for Josh Hazelwood to grow up and partner Mitch Johnson. We should have the technology to clone Shane Warne by then too (shudder). On the other hand , the selectors might honestly believe that Haydos can defy Father Time until the end of the Ashes, and one lengthy knock will be all it takes to restore his form. However if Hayden doesn't salute the crowd after he is dismissed on Tuesday (effectively saying, see you next year folks!) then it will confirm my long-held view that he has disappeared up his own posterior. When Hayden finally goes Jaques will return. I suspect Phil Hughes will be require a bit more seasoning via some IPL or county cricket and is pencilled to replace Katich in 2-3 seasons. My other long-held view is that Hayden desperately wants to return to England to avenge the 2005 series, where Flintoff, Jones and co. came within one innings of terminating his career. Whereas Warne and McGrath were content with the 5-0 return series drubbing in 06-07, I suspect that Hayden took his own embarrassments in the Old Dart more personally. The question is, will more of the same treatment await him? A large part of Hayden's imposing record rests on his awesome home form (Test average 58), where the true pitches allow him to hit through the line and launch his booming drives and pulls with impunity. Away from home the story is different, with a career average only 41. Worse still, his Test average in SA and England is a modest 34 in both countries. PS: Did anybody see footage of Hayden's very nervous wife in the stands during the last over of play on Day 3? The sound was muted so I'm not sure if the commentators had anything insightful to add to the vision. It looked to me like Hayden had been placed in the Last Chance Saloon, and she knew it.
sheek
Guest
Who Needs Melon, There WERE alternatives to Gregan. Regrettably they died of neglect & boredom. If CA is not careful, the same will happen when Hayden eventually retires. His competition will have all given up & gone elsewhere.
Mick of Newie
Guest
If Hilditch and co have any credibility they must now stick with Hayden through to the Ashes. To bring someone else in during the tour of Sth africa or on the Ashes tour would show a complete absence of logic. I would like to hear from Hilditch or James Sutherland what are the current priorities for the test team: Is it: 1, retain no 1 ranking, 2 win series in Sth Afr and 3 retain Ashes. If so retaining Hayden because they think he is still one of the 2 best openers (I don't agree) is justifiable. If it is: 1 Ashes, 2 Sth Afr series and 3 No 1 ranking, then the selection of Hayden in Sydney is indefensible. Even if it ie 1 Sth aFrica series, 2 Ashes and 3 No 1 ranking then Haydewn should not have been picked.
Who Needs Melon
Guest
Happy New Year all. Looks like we are all agreeing with one another here. Any dissenting opinions out there? The comparison with Gregan is interesting. By the end Gregan was below his best - but there SEEMED a dearth of talent around to replace him. When some youngster was given a chance, he stepped up and has developed. There ARE opportunities to replace Hayden and the guy we replace him with will likely develop and get better. Hayden is only going to get worse. Fact of life: What goes up must come down.
sheek
Guest
It's sad to see once great players hanging on long after their best skills have deserted them. It happened with George Gregan, & now it is happening with Matt Hayden. There is a breed of professional player who has decided he will hang in as long as he can, & force the selectors to drop him, if they dare. I've even got a name for it - the Bambi principle. Who's going to shoot Bambi? Or in this case, drop a legendary player?
LeftArmSpinner
Roar Guru
Hayden is delusional. He is also failing to put the team and country first and so loses much of the respect I once held for him. A true team man would gladly withdraw for the betterment of the team and to give his replacement the longest aclimatisation. Perversely, the more they earn, the longer they stay and the shorter they should stay and the less we want them to stay. The selectors have also been culpable in this situation and should also pay with their positions. The Ashes are looking less rather than more retainable. Finally, rather than be caught up in the praise of Clarke's 3rd Test innings, and it was a good one, despite the second and third chances he received, a good batsman does not necessarily make a good captain. The same can be said of the oft repeated mistake of promoting the best salesman to sales manager, only to find that he/she fails and leaves to join a competitor. Clarke should not be the next captain. I suspect he will be!!!
Spiro Zavos
Expert
This is the sort of analysis the selectors should be making. It is quite clear that Matthew Hayden is suffering from the failed-exit syndrome, an unwillingness to give up what has been, until its later stages a glittering career, one of the best of any openers in the history of cricket. He is hostile to the media, probably because it is calling for his head (a la George Gregan). He is having the sort of trouble making the mental and personal adjustment that his Test career is over, or should be. This is understandable. As Geoff points out, none of us like to accept that the glory days are over. Charles Lamb wrote a wonderful essay about the man who got his pension after years of working at the East India Company, and spent his retirement coming back to the office just to check things out. Withdrawal symptoms that evolve in failed-exit syndrome (something that afflicted Allan Border as well) have a traumatic sort of cure, which is the selectorial axe. If Hayden can't see the answer, then it has to be provided for him. But for me, this is only a part of the answer. The next boot to drop is who is selected to replace Hayden. There is no doubt in my mind that this replacement should be Philip Hughes. But will the selectors, with their penchant for not making strong decisions and their preference for journeymen (Andrew McDonald) finally go for class and youth?