Matthew Hayden Pulls Stumps on International Cricket Career
Champion Australian cricket opener Matthew Hayden has today announced his retirement from International cricket. This comes after selectors forced his hand when they dropped him from the one day and Twenty20 team after the recent test series with South Africa.
Haydens recent form has been well below what we have known to expect from one of the best players to ever open an innings for Australia. In the South African series he averaged just 19.5 and his score of 39 in the third test in Sydney was his best score in the five tests this summer.
Hayden made his first class debut when playing for Queensland in November 1991, he made people take notice after scoring 149 runs.
In May 1993 Hayden made his one-day international debut on the tour of England, he scored 29 runs.
In March 1994 Hayden made his Test debut after Mark Taylor fell ill on the morning of a Test in South Africa. He scored 15 and 5. The next six years he only managed to play six more Tests.
It was not until March 2000 that Hayden got his permanent spot as an opener in the Australian cricket team. This came after the dropping of Greg Blewett on the New Zealand tour. From there the rest is history.
In October 2003 Hayden hit 380 runs to set what was at the time the highest score in Test cricket. He held the mark for six months until Brian Lara hit a quadruple-century.
Hayden leaves the game with an average of 50.73 from 103 tests, and an average of 43.80 from 161 one-day internationals.
There are too many great moments in Hayden’s career to list them all here.
Hayden said he now plans on working with charities and also persuing his passions of fishing, cooking and boating.
Three cheers for a champion cricketer.
What are your memories of Matty Hayden? Leave a comment below.
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