SYDNEY—Australian opening batsman Matthew Hayden has decided to retire from international cricket after enduring a torrid summer with the bat.
The 103-Test veteran will formally retire at a press conference at the Gabba at 12.30pm AEDT on Tuesday after spending the last few days mulling over his dumping from Australia's Twenty20 and one-day squads.
The 37-year-old has been battling all summer to rediscover the touch that made him one of the premier openers in the nation's cricketing history.
He has endured a torrid recent time with the bat, averaging just 19.5 during Australia's 2-1 Test series loss to the Proteas, their first series loss at home in over 16 years.
Since returning from an Achilles injury this year, Hayden has scored 383 runs at 23.93 in his last nine Tests compared to his overall outstanding record of 8,625 runs at 50.73.
His 39 at the SCG last week against South Africa was his highest score in five Tests after failing to pass 50 in two Test series, the other against New Zealand.
Hayden's wife Kellie gave a strong indication the Sydney Test would be her husband's last when she stood and emotionally applauded him off the ground at the SCG.
But there was nothing about Hayden's walk from the ground last Tuesday that gave any indication that he thought it was his last Test knock.
He walked off slowly and kept his bat by his side before jogging the last few steps from the playing surface into the members' pavilion.
The Queenslander had been working towards playing a final Ashes series in England this year before retiring from the game.
He has 30 Test centuries to his name and 29 half-centuries.
NSW's Phil Jaques is the likely replacement for Hayden in the Test side if he can fully recover from a back injury in time for next month's return tour of South Africa.
Hayden played 161 one-day internationals for Australia, scoring 6,133 at an average of 43.80 and playing in two World Cup-winning sides.
In the one-day arena he plundered 10 centuries and 36 half-centuries with a top-score of 181 not out.
Hayden's Self-Belief Never Wavers
MELBOURNE—Even at Matthew Hayden's retirement press conference, his self-belief was unbreakable.
Despite a lean home summer, he believed he was capable of making another Ashes tour had he not decided that now was the final stop of his 16-year international cricket career.
Whether Australia's selectors would have agreed is another matter, but it underlined the sort of confidence the opening batsman possessed for almost two decades as a first-class player.
There were plenty of times when that confidence would have been tested, and Hayden, 37, said on Tuesday this summer's slump was the "seventh or eighth" time he found himself at the crossroads.
After being rejected by Rod Marsh at Australia's cricket academy early in his career, Hayden went about proving himself by plundering hundreds of runs for Queensland, and made it impossible for national selectors to ignore him.
He was chosen for the 1993 Ashes tour but Michael Slater timed his run that bit better and got the nod to partner Mark Taylor in the first Test at Old Trafford.
The Taylor-Slater partnership again left Hayden in the cold, so he returned home to the Sheffield Shield to again rack up the runs.
His Test debut came in South Africa in 1994, when Taylor was injured, but against the hostile bowling of Allan Donald, the Queenslander made five and 15.
He looked like he could be destined to become Australia's answer to Graeme Hick, who rattled up big tallies in domestic cricket yet never seized his moment at international level.
It was not until the summer of 1996-97 that Hayden's next chance for Australia came, but he looked to have blown it when he shouldered arms to Curtly Ambrose and was bowled for a duck.
He played that summer's Test in Adelaide and scratched for long enough to make 125, which at least earned an extended run in the opener's position.
But his card looked marked when he again toured South Africa, three years after his debut, but managed only 64 runs in five innings.
Inside him, Hayden knew he had the makings of a Test opener and to his credit kept on stockpiling the runs at Shield level.
He earned a home series in the summer of 2000-01 against the West Indies with no startling results but it was in India that he produced the extraordinary.
Armed with a handful of variations of the sweep shot, Hayden scored 549 runs in the famous three-match series in 2001, including a career-defining 119 in the first Test and 203 in the third, despite an Australian loss.
A mediocre tour of England followed, although it was there he was first united with his long-term opening partner Justin Langer.
Upon his return home, the sight of Hayden dominating attacks on Australian pitches became a constant theme in home summers, as familiar as Richie Benaud.
For many fans, this will be the recurring image of Hayden: chest out, chewing gum, standing outside the crease, desperate to impose his big frame, long reach and physical aura on bowlers.
Combine that presence with his renowned sledging, and it was little wonder his opponents found him abrasive and intimidating, like Australia's attack dog during their period of dominance.
The centuries flowed from 2001-03, including twin hundreds in the first Ashes Test of 2002-03 and the-then world record 380 against Zimbabwe in Perth the following season.
In all, Hayden scored 21 of his 30 Test centuries on home soil, which will confirm the thinking of some of his critics that he was a flat-track bully.
But he produced runs in tough circumstances, notably 119 against Pakistan in Sharjah, in 2002, when no other batsman passed 50; 130 in the first Test in Sri Lanka in 2004; and 138 in the final Test in England in 2005.
Some said he batted at The Oval just to keep his spot, although he racked up more tons at home soon after and remained one constant of the side despite the retirements from 2006-07 onwards.
Hayden's one-day cricket followed a similar path to his Test achievements.
Tried in the mid-1990s, he bided his time until 2000, when he and Adam Gilchrist first teamed together and then blitzed their way through more than 100 opening stands.
Hayden helped Australia win the 2003 World Cup and then starred in the successful title defence in 2007.
His omission from the one-day side this summer was confirmation Australia's selectors were preparing for the future and Hayden absolved the panel another tough call by retiring from Tests.
He said he could have continued on, but knew his time had come.
Matthew Hayden's Career Figures
Date of birth: October 29, 1971
Major teams: Australia, Queensland, Chennai Super Kings, Hampshire, Northamptonshire
TESTS - Debut: 1993-94, 103 matches, 8,625 runs at 50.73, 30 centuries, HS 380, 128 catches
ONE-DAY INTERNATIONALS - Debut: 1993, 161 matches, 6,133 runs at 43.80, 10 centuries, HS 181*, 68 catches
TWENTY20 INTERNATIONALS - Debut: 2005, 9 matches, 308 runs at 51.33, HS 73*, 1 catch
FIRST-CLASS - Debut 1991-92, 295 matches, 24,603 runs at 52.57, 79 centuries, HS 380, 296 catches
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
- His 380 against Zimbabwe in Perth was the highest overall Test score from October 2003 to April 2004
- He won the Allan Border Medal as Australia's best player in 2002.
- ICC's one-day international player of the year for 2007.
- He and opening partner Justin Langer scored 5,655 runs together in 113 Test innings, making them the game's second-most prolific pair behind the West Indies' Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes (6,482 runs from 148 innings)
MOST TESTS FOR AUSTRALIA
168 - Steve Waugh
156 - Allan Border
145 - Shane Warne
128 - Ricky Ponting, Mark Waugh
124 - Glenn McGrath
119 - Ian Healy
107 - David Boon
105 - Justin Langer
104 - Mark Taylor
103 - Matthew Hayden
MOST TEST RUNS FOR AUSTRALIA
11,174 - Allan Border
10,927 - Steve Waugh
10,750 - Ricky Ponting
8,625 - Matthew Hayden
8,029 - Mark Waugh
7,696 - Justin Langer
MOST CENTURIES IN TEST CRICKET
41 - Sachin Tendulkar (India)
37 - Ricky Ponting (Australia)
34 - Sunil Gavaskar (India), Brian Lara (West Indies)
32 - Steve Waugh (Australia)
30 - Matthew Hayden (Australia), Jacques Kallis (South Africa)
29 - Don Bradman (Australia)
MOST ONE-DAY INTERNATIONAL RUNS FOR AUSTRALIA
10,998 - Ricky Ponting
9,595 - Adam Gilchrist
8,500 - Mark Waugh
7,569 - Steve Waugh
6,912 - Michael Bevan
6,524 - Allan Border
6,131 - Matthew Hayden