Born On This Day: 29th October

Powerful left-handed opening batsman Matthew Hayden was born in Queensland, Australia in 1971, and in 1997 he had one very fine season as overseas professional with Hampshire - the first of a run of players from his country to play for the county over the next dozen or so years.

In his season with us he scored almost 1,500 runs at an average of 53.55, including 235* & 119 v Warwickshire at Southampton – the second Hampshire player (after Mead) to score a double and single century in the same game, and the highest aggregate in one match for Hampshire. It was at the time also Hampshire’s highest maiden century.

Hayden scored a century in the next match v Derbyshire, and shortly after 150 v Northamptonshire at Basingstoke. In limited-overs matches that year he scored 980 runs at 46.66, with three more centuries, and he even had time to take 2-16 v Sussex at Southampton in his penultimate Championship match.

The Australians had chosen other openers ahead of Hayden for their tour of England that year but subsequently he played in 103 Test Matches and 160 ODIs for his country in an outstanding career which included 30 Test Match centuries.