My 380 is only the start
By Matthew Hayden
(Filed: 15/10/2003)
Scoring 380 runs in a Test match is a wonderful honour, a special moment I never dreamed of achieving until after lunch on the second day of the Test versus Zimbabwe in Perth. But if I am honest, my aim is to be able to break that record again, though I know the conditions and environment were on my side this time around.
I have always looked upon my cricket career as a journey, with ups and downs, but I feel like I have only just got into the car and that this journey has only just started.
The simple thing that put that record innings in perspective for me was two days after the Test when I had a net practice. There I was, still just loving to hit balls. So nothing has really changed. It is just back to business again. I play in a team who have achieved so many things over the last few years - World Cups, record wins, watching Adam Gilchrist crush batting records, Steve Waugh the same.
If you allow yourself to stop and reflect upon all the achievements within the team, you would start treading water and never get the job done. To achieve the milestone wearing my original baggy green cap from my first Australia tour - 1993 Ashes - is something I cherish.
I said to my wife at stumps on day one last week how pumped I was to be batting with Steve Waugh in my baggy green. I always wanted to raise my bat wearing the baggy green, worn and weathered, and until this innings I had never done it. When you have the cap on your head, it elevates you to a new level. It is like an icon of Australian sport.
What is less enjoyable is having tags put on you, comparing me to Sir Donald Bradman and Sachin Tendulkar. It's a real honour to be mentioned in the same sentence as these greats in cricketing history, but at the end of the day I'm just plain old me trying by best for my team.
The funny thing about breaking Brian Lara's record of 375 was that I didn't even know what it was, or the Bradman-Taylor Australian record of 334 either. I am not big on statistics. I didn't have a clue. Even at the end I was asking Gilchrist, who is huge on cricket history: "What is this record again?"
When I was in the 320s he said: "Well, you have gone past Bob Simpson's 311, and Sir Garfield Sobers is later on, but you have Wally Hammond and Len Hutton and the boys to contend with at the moment." He just reeled them off. Amazing. When I knew about the Bradman-Taylor record, I went for it. When I achieved this, I thought I might as well try for Lara's 375 as well, but I did not think I had a lot of time. I thought we would declare.
I was just going for it, getting runs as quickly as I could. At the end it was the perfect situation - two spinners operating and the field out. So I just batted. As I do at every milestone, I think about how fortunate I am, make the sign of the cross, which puts a check on exactly where you are at. I never thought I would get a chance to score a triple-century because I never thought I would play in a side who would give me that opportunity. But we play our cricket so positively so that time was on my side and, although we had 700 runs on the board, it was still only tea-time on the second day.
People have said how fresh I looked for someone who had been batting 10 hours. My only answer is that I am dedicated to my fitness and work very hard on my own regime, which includes running up the Stradbroke Island sand-hills, something I had done relentlessly in the weeks and months leading up to that Test match. They must be close to being 100 metres high, but it's how steep they are.
The island is just off the Queensland coast where I have a home, a place where I surf and train. I do the sand hills three times a week, 12-15 times at different intensity. They gut you. You get halfway up and there is nothing left in your legs. It's paralysing. If nothing else, the experience breaks down the mental barriers, takes you through the pain threshold, so that when you are tired you know you still have more left.
Fitness is also a mental thing. Mentally I dropped off in the Ashes series last season after starting well in Brisbane. By the time the West Indies came around last March and April, I was cooked. Yet England is a place where I have not managed to really make an impact as a Test cricketer.
England is a wonderful place and memories are so pleasant from my two Ashes tours and county stints with Northamptonshire and Hampshire. However, it is a place where I have not quite got my batting strategies together.
My 380 at Perth is simply part of my journey. England is a place where there is so much more I would like to achieve, even though the road there has had some pot-holes for me in the past. Hopefully, I can continue my form throughout the Australian summer.
