Seeing England humiliated must be one of the best!
Thanks for the memories England!
Now the Ashes should be an interesting battle!
They may have different headlines, but the verdict is unanimous across the Australian media today. Hayden’s career was outstanding. But it’s now over.
It was indeed an outstanding career and I’m glad it’s been reported this way. I’m sure Matthew Hayden would be sitting on his couch this afternoon sad but happy he’ll be remembered fondly.
I’ve been critical of his inclusion in the most recent AU v SA series and I I’m not sorry, but now it’s done and I’m glad he’s done the right thing. It could have been ugly. The headlines could have been, and I believe would have been, bad if he had not retired before the SA selection. In fact, had he made the tour and performed equally poorly, they would have indeed been brutal and our lasting impression of him would have been ‘the guy who didn’t know what was good for him, the guy who didn’t know when to leave.’
Retiring on his own terms (well the selectors may have tapped him on the shoulder and strongly encouraged the retirement) is a much better result than being sacked.
It’s a shame that he didn’t at least announce his retirement at the beginning of the series. I think he was probably hoping to regain form, but he’s 37, not seeing the ball that well and it was time to move over. Had he been 30 and in a form slump, sure give him more time to regain it, but 37, plenty of talent knocking on the door, it would have been criminal to have robbed the youth of Aussie cricket an opportunity to join the team sooner rather than later.
So now that it’s over, congratulations Matthew Hayden, you’ve served your country well, I hope you enjoy life after cricket.
Cricket is one of my favorite sports. In fact it’s probably my number 1 sport. I enjoyed playing it, love watching it live with mates at the ground and love watching it on the living room couch with a beer in my hand. The best thing with cricket is it’s usually always beer drinking weather.
So as an Australian, it pains me to say it, but I hold grave concerns for us when we travel to England next year for the Ashes. It could be ugly. I can pretty much handle losing to any other team, but the English, I just hate the thought!
I’ve got lots of English friends and it’s a traumatic experience!
Lets have a quick look at the Boxing day 11.
Hayden : HAS to go. I can’t believe he is holding on. He has a great average, but why does he want to undo his many years of great service? The selectors would be doing him (his average) a favor by giving him the flick. As much as we love ya big boy, it’s time to fall on your sword.
Katich : Looking good, I just hope the selectors give him more of a chance than they have in the past.
Ponting : HAS to step down as captain. He is weak, and when you’ve had Border and Waugh as two of your previous three captains, he is just way too soft. And Tubs wasn’t all that soft either. Ponting seems to be more interested in NOT being the fall guy than winning or at least trying to win a match. His record is great, but the team practically ran itself until the Ashes 05. In fact, excluding the blip on the radar, it ran itself until Langer, Gilchrist McGrath and Warne retired. And lets be honest, if it weren’t for Warnes indiscretions, he’d have been captain!
Hussey : Looks lost at the moment. Hopefully he’ll find his way soon.
Clarke : Plays 10x better when he shaves his head!
Symonds : Geez what do we do with Symonds? The Pubs in England are so much fun, he’ll spend most of it drunk so do you risk taking him?
Haddin : I like him. He’ll be just fine.
Lee : Well he’s just split with his wife so I’m guessing that takes a lot out of you. Hopefully he’ll come good. He was looking great a year ago.
Johnson : Should do well on the English wickets! Just needs some ore experience.
Hauritz : Well we need a spinner but is he it? We’ll be wanting to decide pretty damn quick. No point playing him on and off. He’s either in or out. Lets give that position as much experience as we can before sending them over.
Siddle : Really don’t know much about him. His 1st over of the Boxing day test was pretty damn brilliant!
So, Symonds or Watson? Hayden or Marsh/Hughes/Other? The thing that annoys me most is we need to nail the selections now so they can get as much experience as possible. Hayden needs to go NOW if he isn’t going to England, ditto for Symonds. The spin position needs to be sorted too.
We’ve got heaps of great batsman in Shield cricket but they need to sort it out ASAP.
With our tail making 100+ fairly consistently, imagine if our top order were actually doing something useful.
We don’t want the Ashes 09 to turn into a bloodbath.
Of course, everything seems easier from the couch! No matter what happens, Aussie Aussie Aussie!
