Australian great Matthew Hayden has given new meaning to cricket coverage, unveiling a fresh head of hair during Channel Seven’s broadcast of the Darwin Test.
Hayden’s new thatch proved such a talking point as Bangladesh dominated the early part of the match that social media users dubbed the former opening batter “Matthew Hairden”.
The knockabout Queenslander proudly revealed his new hair while calling cricket in the Top End, having bedded down his artificial implants during the off-season . Either that, or we have seriously underestimated the growing power of the Northern Territory humidity.
Until now, Hayden has appeared on our screens from Test venues around the world often sporting a black ten-gallon hat that would make a Texan rancher proud.
Whenever he whipped the hat from his head, it became apparent he was follically challenged. Bald even. Not any more.
Hayden was prepared to poke fun at his new look, complete with a closely clipped grey beard.
“As you knew I was complaining about the drop-ins [drop-in cricket pitches] earlier, so I thought I would have a little drop-in of my own,” he joked on the All Over Bar The Cricket podcast alongside Seven colleagues James Brayshaw and Greg Blewett.
“And, of course, as you can see, this job here has got a little more than 10 mil of grass on it. So expect there to be some seaming conditions in the next year or two.”
It was a reference to the length of the grass on the MCG pitch for last year’s Boxing Day Test, for which the curator left 10 millimetres of grass on the wicket. The grass coverage contributed to a two-day Test match, which was a commercial disaster for Cricket Australia during the Ashes summer.
Returning to the subject of his hair, Hayden joked: “The fact that it came straight off my back means that it is flourishing. It’s going to look like a Yeti in a few years’ time.”
Typically, there was plenty of feedback for Hayden, who is the latest in a long line of cricketers to have sought to reverse their receding hairlines, starting Greg Matthews in the ’80s and including the great Shane Warne.
Seven Cricket posted a clip of Hayden talking to Ricky Ponting – who also seemed to defy time a few years back – about his fight to stay in the Australian Test side.
While Hayden’s anecdote was humorous and heartfelt, most viewers could not look beyond Hayden’s “rug”.
“Has he been to Turkey for the hair implants?” one commenter posted.
“Does he need ongoing haircuts or does it just stay as is?” another asked.
One even suggested he might be cast for a new role: “Is there an Anchorman 3 coming out? That haircut is a prime candidate…”
In fact, Hayden received his treatment from Medlinks, a Delhi-based company.
Say what you want about Hayden’s pursuit of the hirsute, the Australian top order could do with Hayden back in the line-up judging by their first innings total of 198.
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