Craig
World Traveller
Article that appeared in today's Sunday Mail (Brisbane paper and is owned by News Ltd so it would probably be in the Sydney and Melbourne papers as well).
There you go
For those too lazy:
Magic Matt's No. 1
ANDREW DAWSON
05mar06
CRICKET'S bible Wisden has anointed Queensland's Matthew Hayden as the greatest Test batsman of the decade.
Hayden surpassed Ricky Ponting, Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, Steve Waugh, Saeed Anwar and Adam Gilchrist to snare the mantle.
Wisden's rating was based on mathematical calculations. Players had to have played at least 50 Tests between 1996 and last year.
"It has been a great journey, the last decade," said Hayden, whose average was only 21 after his initial seven Tests in the mid-1990s.
"To think 10 years ago I was dropped from the Australian side for the second time and then I had to wait again.
"I had faith and patience and it has been a great time, the last five or six years."
Hayden enters this month's Test series against South Africa with five 100s in his past eight Tests.
His runs were scored against a variety of attacks – England, the World XI, West Indies and South Africa.
A strength of Hayden is his belief in his game plan.
He was criticised for over aggressive pull strokes after a first-over mishap in a Test against South Africa in Perth in December.
His response in the second innings was to pull another five strokes to the boundary, before getting out in the last over of the day, again pulling, for 20. In the next Test he continued to pull and a century resulted.
Wisden's calculations were based on a series of equations.
They included a player's failure rate (scores under 20), current average, percentage of hundreds, aggregate runs, percentage of games in which a player top-scored, the number of times a player was in a winning side and his strike rate.
Hayden scored heavily in all departments. His honour roll includes:
Only Australian batsman to score 1000 Test runs in calendar year five times.
Hayden and Sir Donald Bradman are the only batsmen in Test history to score four 100s in successive Tests twice.
Third on Australia's all-time Test batting average list.
Fourth on Australia's all-time Test century-makers list.
Sixth on Australia's all-time one-day batting average list.
Statistically Australia's sixth greatest catcher in Tests.
His conversion rate from 50 to 100 is second only to Bradman by an Australian batsman. ]
There you go
For those too lazy:
Magic Matt's No. 1
ANDREW DAWSON
05mar06
CRICKET'S bible Wisden has anointed Queensland's Matthew Hayden as the greatest Test batsman of the decade.
Hayden surpassed Ricky Ponting, Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, Steve Waugh, Saeed Anwar and Adam Gilchrist to snare the mantle.
Wisden's rating was based on mathematical calculations. Players had to have played at least 50 Tests between 1996 and last year.
"It has been a great journey, the last decade," said Hayden, whose average was only 21 after his initial seven Tests in the mid-1990s.
"To think 10 years ago I was dropped from the Australian side for the second time and then I had to wait again.
"I had faith and patience and it has been a great time, the last five or six years."
Hayden enters this month's Test series against South Africa with five 100s in his past eight Tests.
His runs were scored against a variety of attacks – England, the World XI, West Indies and South Africa.
A strength of Hayden is his belief in his game plan.
He was criticised for over aggressive pull strokes after a first-over mishap in a Test against South Africa in Perth in December.
His response in the second innings was to pull another five strokes to the boundary, before getting out in the last over of the day, again pulling, for 20. In the next Test he continued to pull and a century resulted.
Wisden's calculations were based on a series of equations.
They included a player's failure rate (scores under 20), current average, percentage of hundreds, aggregate runs, percentage of games in which a player top-scored, the number of times a player was in a winning side and his strike rate.
Hayden scored heavily in all departments. His honour roll includes:
Only Australian batsman to score 1000 Test runs in calendar year five times.
Hayden and Sir Donald Bradman are the only batsmen in Test history to score four 100s in successive Tests twice.
Third on Australia's all-time Test batting average list.
Fourth on Australia's all-time Test century-makers list.
Sixth on Australia's all-time one-day batting average list.
Statistically Australia's sixth greatest catcher in Tests.
His conversion rate from 50 to 100 is second only to Bradman by an Australian batsman. ]