Did Hayden jump the gun?

Matthew Hayden’s decision to finally hang up his boots has sparked lots of debate about whether he is Australia’s greatest opening batsman and where he sits in the list of All-Time-Greats. I played with Matt from his early days in Grade cricket and watched the development of a batsman with the most incredible self-belief of any human being in any walk of life that I have encountered. In that respect, he is the greatest "positive thinker" I have ever met. Being dropped or overlooked was only a minor speedbump to him. There was always another comeback, another reason to prove selectors wrong. Until now of course!

Who are the greatest cricketers? Is it based on total runs/wickets, averages, match-winning innings, match-saving innings, quality of opposition, helpful pitches etc. It’s a fascinating question that has no definitive black and white answer.

There is no real way to settle this argument is there? We’re all entitled to our own opinions and personal favourites and we’ve all got our own reasons for arriving at that decision. I’ve come up with one interesting benchmark to come up with one such list. Let’s try to find a list of players who have never been dropped in their entire Test careers. We’re not talking about injuries, team rotation policies or voluntary unavailability but actually “not selected” when available.

For ease of comparison, let’s restrict it to anyone who has played 50+ Tests and let’s start with anyone making their debuts after 1970. Even The Don was dropped at some point in his career so it just proves that this theory is not foolproof. Nonetheless, it might prove a fascinating exercise. Please join me in adding to the list or correcting any mistakes. I’m not using Wisden Almanacks, Statsguru or any research tools so I’m relying on my imperfect memory to start the ball rolling.

Let’s start at the top of the batting tree then. Have Tendulkar and Lara ever been dropped? I suspect not but perhaps early in their careers, they may have suffered that ignominy. I can’t think of it in recent times. Ricky Ponting, Steve Waugh and Allan Border were certainly dropped early in their careers but I don’t know if Sunil Gavaskar ever felt the axe. What about Javed Miandad? Likewise, my gut feeling is that Viv Richards was never dropped from a West Indies team. Gordon Greenidge is another that makes me scratch my head and wonder.

Bowlers – has Muttiah Muralitharan ever had the tap on the shoulder since he began his career? Shane Warne was famously left out for Stuart MacGill in the West Indies and I’m fairly confident that Wasim Akram, Courtney Walsh and Dennis Lillee have all been dropped at some point. Perhaps Lillee was just injured? Curtly Ambrose – I’m guessing that he was always first person picked in his era.

Wicketkeepers may have escaped relatively lightly. Was Ian Healy dropped or did he jump just in time? Adam Gilchrist has certainly never been left out of a Test team. Kumar Sangakkara probably makes that list too as does Andy Flower but it’s a bit tougher to assess the Zimbabwe situation because of their relative lack of depth. Mark Boucher has certainly felt the selector’s wrath in his Test career. Anyone know if Rod Marsh was dropped in the early part of his career (apart from World Series Cricket)?

Some less than obvious candidates may be Mark Taylor, Rahul Dravid, Richard Hadlee, Michael Holding, Allan Donald, Hansie Cronje and perhaps Malcolm Marshall. Kevin Pietersen hasn’t played enough Tests yet to qualify but I can’t see it happening in the near future. Who’s to say what indignities he might yet suffer? Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Michael Hussey are certainly heading in the right direction but they still have some time to go before serving the 50 Test qualification that I arbitrarily imposed on this list.

I’m not even pretending that this is meant to be the ultimate judge of the greatest players of all time. Most great players credit the disappointment of being dropped as one of the turning points in their careers so it is clear that missing selection at some point is a mere speed bump to many luminaries of the game. I’m just curious to see what sort of list we can come up with if we all rack our brains. I don’t think I’ve missed too many.

As for Matt Hayden – my personal view is that he probably mistimed his jump by a few weeks. Like Gilchrist and Lara, his legend may have been better served by retiring at a time when people would say “why?” rather than waiting just that bit too long and have those same people saying “when?”. It’s easy in hindsight though and Hayden was never one to die wondering. Live by the sword…….

Looking forward to reading your responses.