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[Master Blaster]

Haydos announced this afternoon he has quit playing cricket.

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,24905280-5006069,00.html

[Sambo]

The best opener ever. Sad that he won't be around to clobber everyone. Well played mate.

[Tikolo]

I reckon he should of played for a bit longer, he should of went back and player for the Bulls, and if he didnt score runs for them then maybe he should retire, but i still think hes got a lot left in him

[Talisman]

Bad news for England, now we will have an opener in form replace him.

[siberry]

A little known fact that i like is that when Hayden was playing for his youth state cricket team, he was kicked out of it because the coach belived he had a faulty technique and would never get anywhere. Big Blunder!

[danspink]

sad to see him go. but he is playing for another 2 seasons in IPL.

[Bellie]

i just read this and i found it to be a really really loving piece by justin langer

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/other_international/australia/7826745.stm

[Jeet]

Sambo, Hayden isn't the best opener ever, that title goes to Gavaskar

[sultanofswing]

i disagree there. jack hobbs or herbert sutcliffe ring a bell?

[Jeet]

Gavaskar scored the most hundreds as opener, the most runs as opener and centuries in both inns 3 times, pretty decent IMO.

[sultanofswing]

Jack Hobbs has 61760 first class runs with 199 centuries, on uncovered pitches! Averaged 56 in tests

Herbert Sutcliffe has 50670 first class runs with 151 hundreds, on uncovered pitches. Averaged 60 in tests

vs.

Sunil Gavaskar has 25834 first class runs with 81 hundreds. Averaged 51 in tests.

I am not saying that Gavaskar is a bad player, however if you go on stats he is surpassed by those too. Theres also a few players like Victor Trumper, Clem Hill and also Dr W G Grace who you might have heard of...

[Jeet]

Yes I have heard of the players you mention, but I would go on to say that Gavaskar was often India's only hope and didn't recieve much support from the rest of his batting line up. I'm pretty sure that Hobbs and Sutcliffe played in better sides than Gavaskar. You just have to look at Gavaskar's record against the Windies to see how good he was.

[sultanofswing]

Fair point, well made.

But you do have to look at on the surfaces where the older players scored there runs! Most of what they played on we wouldnt even consider nowadays!

Just because Gavaskar was indias only hope doesnt mean he is the best opener!

[Jeet]

But because he was India's only hope shows he was able to still perform under such pressure, a lesser player might've crumble, but Sunny seemed to thrive.

[sultanofswing]

All the players i have mentioned were exceptional talents!! All scored runs under pressure, i dont think you can jusitify your claim that gavaskar is the best opener on that basis. Going on that standard Michael Atherton could be classes as one of the best due to the amount of times he had to hold together englands very fragile batting order!