Time to go Matty (Hayden)

I remember many years back watching Matthew Hayden with a friend of mine on Boxing Day. Australia was playing the West Indies. It was early in Hayden's career. I was an advocate of his position in the test side. My mate argued incessantly that Hayden should not be in the team. To prove my mate's point Matty Hayden went on to leave a ball that clean bowled him. It was an embarrassing dismissal for Hayden and I had egg on my face for sticking up for him. Nevertheless I argued that he should be in the test side. Over all I have been the correct judge as Hayden has had a wonderful career. He has been a highly dependable player. 8625 runs at 50.37 with 30 centuries is solid.

We are thankful for the player that Hayden has been, but it is time for him to retire. Over the last 6 test matches he has averaged 22 runs. His failures at the crease have been all too consistent this Summer. The icing on the cake was when he dropped Ntini at second slip in the third test in Sydney, which would have won the match. The catch was simple and straight forward, yet his head was just not in the zone.

Over the last two years Shane Warne, Glen Mc Grath, Damien Martyn, Justin Langer and Adam Gilchrist have all retired from the Australian team. As each player has retired the public have been sad to see them go. They all left on a high note. Many times people have wished that Shane Warne would come back to the side. He has happily refused knowing that his legend will be remembered.

If Matthew Hayden does not retire soon then nobody will miss him when he is gone. In fact I will be happy when he is gone, and I have always spoken up for him during his career. I wish he would know when his time has come. He now seems out of place in the side. It seems that we have a new team now of younger players who are capable of winning. It is time to build the next generation test side and sadly Hayden is now just getting in the way.