Is Matthew Hayden the greatest opening batsmen of all time..?

Question

Hayden has a strong batting average in both forms of the game

An amazing conversation rate

A wonderful record against all teams

and unlike Sunny Gavaskar, Hayden conquered both tests and ODI cricket!

Do you think Matthew Hayden is the best opening batsmen that has ever played the game?

If not, who is?

Answer 1

no he sis econd but first is master blaster Sanath jayasuriya

Answer 2

He is good, but some of those WI batsmen of the past have been right up there with him.

Answer 3

Matthew Hayden is very good in both forms of the game.....ODI and Tests but there have been some other players too who can be considered as one of the greatests if not THE greatest.

Names like Sunny Gavaskar,Gordon Greenidge,Sir Geoff Boycott do come up to my mind when I think about the greatest opening batsman of all times.

Answer 4

definitively of modern cricket

Answer 5

well, i wouldnt say he was the greatest because you have to take into account guys like Barry Richards, Gordon Greenidge and Nick Knight (HA!! yeah right!! lol) as well as guys like Hutton and Hobbs who never got the chance to play the shorter forms of the game, so while i cant say he is the greatest he has to be a long way up the list, above Vaughan (oh yeah, i sink the boot in while i can LOL), i can see he is the best i have ever seen (remember i only been watching since around 1990) and when asked to name an all time XI, he and Barry Richards are my opening combination.

he maybe not be the greatest opener, then again he might be, i dont know about that, but i do know that hes the best opener i have ever seen, he'll be a one few batsman i will enjoy talking to my grandchildren about

Answer 6

I asked my system to tell me who are greatest test and ODI batsmen (combined) of all time. It gave me the following data of all batsmen and the 40 names are given below:

(1) Lara (100) (2) Dean Jones (96) (3) IVA Richards (96) (4) Jacques Kallis (95) (5) CG Greenidge (95) (6) Des Haynes (93) (7) Matthew Hayden (93) (8) Tendulkar (92) (9) Gary Kirsten (91) (10) Kevin Pietersen (91) (11) Javed Miandad (90) (12) RT Ponting (90) (13) Md. Yousuf (89) (14) Zaheer Abbas (89) (15) Greg Chappell (89) (16) Glenn Turner (86) (17) Gavaskar (85) (18) Sangakkara (85) (19) Graeme Smith (84) (20) Saeed Anwar (83) (21) Martin Crowe (83) (22) David Boon (83) (23) Inzamam (80) (24) Wessels (80) (25) Trescothick (79) (26) Dravid (77) (27) Robin Smith (77) (28) Mark Waugh (76) (29) Andrew Flower (76) (30) Graham Gooch (75) (31) Mark Taylor (75) (32) Andrew Jones (75) (33) Geoff Marsh (75) (34) Chanderpaul (75) (35) Richie Richardson (75) (36) Mahela Jayawardene (72) (37) DJ Cullinan (71) (38) Virender Sehwag (70) (39) Graham Thorpe (70) (40) Mike Atherton (70), etc..

Now you know the answer. Matthew Hayden is third best after Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes.

Answer 7

Purists would like to say no. Hayden has mastered all 3 forms of the game, has battered all attacks into submission, and done well on all types of surfaces.

But when talking about the great players of this era, let alone of all time, his name is always omitted.

Is he the best opening batsman that has ever played the game? No, he is not. Gordon Greenidge was an even more destructive batsman, and I would have loved to have seen him in a T20 game, especially with the heavy bats and smaller boundaries we see today.

And there are many wonderful batsmen of yester year who only played Test cricket: Arthur Morris, Jack Hobbs, Herbert Sutcliffe, to name but three.

You compare Hayden to Gavaskar. Fair point, but they are totally different players. And Gavaskar faced the might of the Windies under a floppy sun hat, in the days before the limiting of short pitched head high deliveries.

And what about Graham Gooch? He would have been a terrific player in T20.

So Hayden's place in the pantheon of all time great opening batsmen is certainly at the top table, but to call him the greatest of all time is erroneous.

But I do feel that he deserves far more recognition for his skills than he actually receives.

Who is the greatest opening batsman of all time?  Arthur Shrewsbury. When W. G. Grace was asked who the best batsman was (after himself, of course), he famously replied "Give me Arthur". This tough Nottinghamshire opening bat is not someone everyone may be familiar with, but you can trace the line of great England openers, including Hobbs, Sutcliffe, Hutton, Boycott, Gooch, Atherton, Vaughan, all the way back to Shrewsbury.

You can never compare players of different eras. Shrewsbury is merely my personal choice, but I could just as easily say Gooch, or Morris, or Gavaskar. It doesn't really matter, so long as each player gets recognised for his own achievements.

Answer 8

i don't really... know but , Gorden Greenidge ,and Desmond Haynes must be hard to beat

.

Answer 9

Order of ranking:

1.Sir Jack Hobbes.



No batsman has scored more runs (61237) or centuries (197) in first class cricket.

2.Sunil Gavaskar

Statistically the best of all opening batsman scoring 34 test hundreds at 51 run average and 10,122 runs.



3.Barry Richards

The most gifted opener of all and the greatest match-winner.



4.Len Hutton

Technically ,the best of all batsmen.Sadly his career was cut by the war when he injured his left elbow.



5.Matthew Hayden

In test Cricket no batsman has scored in such a blistering manner,or turned the complexion of a game.Not  a great technician . Scored one thousand runs in a calendar year, a record 5 times .



6.Herbert Sutcliffe

Staistically the best opener in terms of average. Averaging 60.73.



7.Arthur Morris

A match-winning opening batsman who played a major role in Bradman's champion team.







8.Graham Gooch

The most dynamic of all English openingt batsman. Not technically perfect or elegant ,but tackled fast bowling  in the manner Viv or Barry Richards could do at their best.

9. Gordon Greenidge

The best West Indian opening batsman of all. In full flow he could murder any pace attack.



10.Geoff Boycott.

The most difficult batsman ever to dismiss who simply stood like a boulder

11.Glen Turner

Remarkably he could bat for his life and tear an attack apart.(bat like Sir  Geoff Boycott or Sir Viv Richards). Few batsman were technically more competent.Glen started his career  batting slowly and staying on like a wall.

12.Hanif Mohammad

  

Technically in the Sunil Gavaskar class and arguably the best of all Pakistani batsman.He batted like an impregnable wall.

Answer 10

Up there with the likes of Gavaskar, Greenige, Hobbs and Sutcliffe.

Answer 11

He is certainly up there, Although the names Graham Gooch, Marcus Trescothick and Desmond Haynes spring to mind immediately.

Answer 12

He will always be up the top of my list as batsman.I don't however think he is the best,i love Haydo's to death,but Allan Border and Brian Lara are the 2 players who i think are just ahead of Matt..

I say these 2 as they both crossed the magic 10,00 mark but both could also play ODI matches just as good as test matches.