Matthew Hayden was rightly awarded Australian cricket’s highest accolade on Monday night, when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame at the Allan Border Medal.
Boasting a handsome Test average of 50.73 runs over 103 Test matches, few eyebrows were raised across the cricketing community at the news of Hayden’s induction.
But it was his speech that stuck out like the proverbial sore thumb more so than impressive his record.
The once intimidating left-handed opener spoke with humility of his own greatness and passion for the game and the people in it. He routinely, but with great sincerity, paid tribute to the loving and guiding support around him from his family, friends, and his teammates – many of whom will no doubt be making the same speech before Australia wins its next Test series overseas.
Speaking to a crowd of past, current and future stars, Hayden marvelled at the evolution of the game.
Like many cricket lovers, he detailed his awe of the games’ excitement across all three formats. Once perceived as an axe-swinging beast himself, Hayden acknowledged that cricket has undergone a severe metamorphosis since his retirement in 2009.
He is not wrong. The game has changed and continues to.
Making direct comparisons between current-day players and those in Hayden’s era is almost a waste of breath. Like Andre Agassi and Nat Fyfe, Matthew Hayden and David Warner are champions in their own right of different sporting codes.
Where great sportspeople are comparable – according to Greg Baum of The Age – is in their “achievement, style and graciousness”.
And Hayden’s achievements are substantial, relative to his cricketing colleagues.
In a golden era of Australian cricket, he alleviated selectors from many headaches by securing an opening position for over a decade. He played and dominated in consecutive World Cup tournament wins and once held the highest Test score by an individual batsman.
His style was unique, revolutionary and memorable. He reversed the psychological relationship between the batsman and bowler. Hayden instilled direct fear into the person who was soon to throw a rock at his body at somewhere near one hundred miles per hour. Spectators trembled from their couches. He left aggressively outside his off stump and swept poetically across his body. And now, he is an inspiration to those who have succeeded him.
The only asterisk alongside Hayden’s record of greatness is his grace, or lack of it. But if he were to have had the grace of Roger Federer, as Baum details, he may well have been left behind many years ago.
It was his power and intimidation, for a sportsperson in such a vulnerable position as a Test opener, which was so admirable and revolutionary. Although no major off-field drama blemished his career, you would be hard pressed to find a cricket admirer who understood Hayden as a person with grand elegance and charm.
He was terrifying, and it worked.
However, on the stage at the Star Casino in front of many admirers, Hayden made an exception.
He graciously expressed his love for a game that made him a modern day icon of Australian sport. He expressed his gratitude to the public broadcasting service for painting a colourful story of a game through radio waves to people like himself who were not fortunate enough to watch the game on a screen, having grown up outside of a metropolitan city prior to the digital age.
Hayden celebrated the cricketing community’s enduring will to ensure that it honours the achievements of the game and of the players within it. He praised the modern style of the game and encouraged current and future players to continue entertaining their audiences. Through great passion, he demonstrated strong admiration for the perennial grace of cricket, a game that continues to walk on a tight rope.
But lastly, one final measure of greatness, a “subset of achievement” Baum says, is durability.
Hayden, like many cricket lovers, does not doubt the games’ achievement as a persistent contributor to Australian sport, its unique style which cannot be taught or learnt, or grace which changes between formats.
Yet it is clear, like so many cricket lovers, that with the impatient changing pace of the game, Hayden fears for its longevity. Unequivocally, the game has reached greatness. The only question mark remains over its durability.
Unquestionably, however, Matthew Hayden has been, and continues to be, a key contributor to the longevity of an iconic game. A wonderful innings.
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