On the treadmill to success

Matthew Hayden was on the treadmill when the semi-final of '99 happened. He meant it literally - it's from where he watched the remarkable dying minutes of the match on telly - but his every other memory of the occasion was laden with the metaphoric. Dumped from the national side, he was doing the county circuit with Northamptonshire; he was, in his words, "absolutely zero part of the Australian setup and didn't even looking getting a start".

He remembered that "it's the same year that Steve Waugh rang and said: 'Mate keep going. You have a chance of playing for Australia. I believe in you. Keep going'." And he remembered that "it was a pretty remarkable event really, the whole game, but ironically, I happened to be in a completely different competition, at a completely different part of my life. But still, with that sort of burning desire to play for my country and be part of the spectacle of a World Cup."

Hayden did become a part of the spectacle in 2003. He lifted the World Cup. Another four years down the line he is its prime spectacle.

No batsman has imposed himself on this Caribbean tournament as Hayden, and few have in any previous edition. Only two batsmen before him have struck three centuries in one competition. While both his predecessors were rather more soothing on the eye, neither so damaged the very soul of the opposition. Neither also made their runs against such quality opposition.

Sourav Ganguly in 2003 scored two of his centuries against Kenya and one against Namibia. Mark Waugh had one against Kenya. Hayden's came against South Africa - 66 balls - West Indies and New Zealand. His 580 runs have been at an average of 82.85 and a strike-rate of 108. Not bad for a man dropped from the one-day side two years ago.

Hayden has thanked Ricky Ponting for reposing faith in him. That was a good headline there. Yet more impressive was his assessment of the comeback. "I mean this story is nothing remarkable," he stressed. "It's just a story of what it means for us to play for our country and the level of expectation that we firstly put on ourselves and secondly the rewards of playing good cricket for Australia. It's no coincidence that this is a side that's been at the top of its game for a long period of time."

Perhaps not to the degree of his partner of old, Justin Langer, Hayden brings a kind of spiritual heft to his work. He meditates at the pitch the day before the match. He speaks of hard work as a kind of salvation. Accomplishment is a kind of credo. While it may not be unusual for cricketers to have hobbies and interests, few pursue them as seriously as Hayden does cooking, surfing, fishing.

In the Caribbean Hayden has been at peace with himself. He talks about the joy of being surrounded by water, of waking up to the sight of it. He is delighted to find juicy fresh lime that can be squeezed on his food. At St Vincent he caught tuna and did a barbecue for the team. In Grenada he hauled in a 136kg marlin that made him famous on the island. Eighty people received him on the shore. A local presented him a greyhound on the achievement. "The smiles you see on the West Indians faces, no matter what walk of life they are, are certainly encouraging," he said. "We draw a lot of strength from it as well."

To achieve is to be, Hayden gives off the feeling. When the Australians recently had an audience with the rowing legend Sir Steve Redgrave Hayden was moved. "What hit a chord with me," he said, "was that he really had to work harder as his career went on. He wasn't looking for the easy routes at all. In fact, he was looking to trying harder."

When Hayden returns to face the South Africans on Wednesday the memories will be of his contemptuousness of their bowlers last month. But the association goes back 13 years, and it was in some ways the making of Hayden.

"I certainly learnt a lot from my first tour of 1994 of South Africa," he said. "We saw the likes of Allan Donald and Brian McMillan - very aggressive, competitive cricketers, backed up by the hard-nosed captain in Kepler Wessels," he said. "In my first game against them I got 5 and 15 and a broken thumb. So, it was a baptism of fire, but one I really enjoyed."

The teams are staying at the same hotel, and Hayden acknowledges the effect of all the talk of mental holds and historic needle flying about before a big match. "There is an unusual tension - a friction I guess," he said. "It is melodramatic in a lot of ways. It's kind of good versus bad. All those kind of things come out. But I can assure you that it is very personable.

"I mean, you get two great countries like Australia and South Africa and you can play a game of dominoes, as the locals love to play here, and I am sure we will be competitive as well." You suspect he's probably been practising dominoes.