Matthew Hayden

Matthew Lawrence Hayden (born 29 October 1971) is an Australian cricket commentator and former cricketer.

His career spanned fifteen years.

Hayden and Michael Slater were both picked for the 1993 tour of England, but Slater performed better in the tour games, and secured the opening position alongside vice-captain Mark Taylor for the next few years.

Hayden played a single test in the 4–8 March 1994 Test Match against South Africa in Johannesburg, scoring 15 and 5, filling in for an injured Taylor.

Hayden competed in the Gladiator Team Sports Challenge in 1995, Hayden's boat capsized near North Stradbroke Island; he and his two companions (one of whom was Queensland and Australian teammate Andrew Symonds and the other was Trent Butler) were forced to swim a kilometre to safety.

Hayden subsequently appeared in a campaign promoting marine safety.

In his spare time, Hayden is a keen cook and occasionally prepared meals for his teammates while on tour.

His next Test selection was in the 1996–97 season, with three tests each against the West Indies and South Africa.

He made his maiden century (125 against the West Indies in Adelaide), but averaged only 24.1 over the six tests, including four ducks.

He also played in the English County Championship, first with Hampshire in 1997 and prominently as captain of Northamptonshire in 1999–2000; his County record is 3461 runs at 55.82.

Hayden's first-class career yielded 24,603 runs at an average of 52.57.

Hayden was a powerful and aggressive left-handed opening batsman who, along with opening partners Justin Langer and Adam Gilchrist, contributed heavily to Australia's success during its "golden era" (2000-2008) in Test and ODI (One Day International) cricket respectively.

Hayden was awarded the Australian Sports Medal on 14 July 2000.

He holds the record of highest individual score by an Australian batsman in Test s, having scored 380 against Zimbabwe during Zimbabwe's 2003 tour of Australia.

This stands as the second-highest individual score in test cricket (behind Brian Lara‘s 400*).

It is the highest score by an opening batsman in Tests, though infamously he never faced the opening ball in Tests with Langer, always batting at No2.

Hayden was a member of the Australian team that won both the 2003 Cricket World Cup, and the 2007 Cricket World Cup.

Domestically, Hayden played for the state he was born in, Queensland, and also played for the state's Twenty20 (T20) competition team, the Brisbane Heat.

A collection of his recipes was published in Australia in 2004 as The Matthew Hayden Cookbook.

A second book, The Matthew Hayden Cookbook 2, was published in 2006.

Prior to using a Mongoose, Hayden used a Gray-Nicolls bat with a fluorescent pink grip, to highlight and support research into a cure for breast cancer.

This is at least in part inspired by his teammate Glenn McGrath's wife, who died due to breast cancer.

He is married to Kellie and has three children

Hayden is a devout Roman Catholic and said, "When I’m in trouble, I ask: ‘What would Christ do? '" He also routinely crossed himself on the field after reaching a century.

When asked about faith in modern society, Hayden said, “''I think it’s very challenging to live as a Christian, or any sort of religion, in terms of modern day society.

I think it’s very difficult as a young adult, and I think I really struggled with that over a long period of time”''.

Matthew Hayden played for the Chennai Super Kings in the inaugural Indian Premier League (IPL) in April 2008, contracted for $375,000.

In 2009, as part of the Q150 celebrations, Matthew Hayden was announced as one of the Q150 Icons of Queensland for his role as a "sports legend".

Hayden became one of the foremost players in the league, and in 2009 won the Orange Cap as the season's highest run-scorer, with 572 runs.

On 26 January 2010 he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for service to cricket, and to the community through support for a range of health, youth and charitable organisations.

Hayden is an Ambassador for the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation.

Hayden played Sheffield Shield cricket for Queensland, playing 101 matches, and scoring 8831 runs at an average of 54.85.

On 11 March 2010, Hayden announced his intention to use the Mongoose Cricket Bat, a bat specially tailored to the needs of Twenty20 cricket, during the 2010 IPL.

Reactions to the bat were mixed.

Stuart Law said that he would think 'twice' before using the Mongoose, while MS Dhoni said in his column that he believed in Hayden's ability 'no matter what means he uses'.

After a quiet start to the third edition of the IPL, Hayden scored 93 off 43 deliveries to kickstart his campaign.

In 2011–12, Hayden resigned from his positions on the Queensland and Australian cricket boards to take part for the Brisbane Heat in Australia's Big Bash League.

Hayden retired from all forms of cricket in September 2012.

In 2017, Hayden was inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame.

In September 2021, Hayden was appointed as the Batting Coach of Pakistan for the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup.