Standing My Ground

Matthew Hayden is one of the finest players of Australia's all-conquering Test cricket side of the last decade, and this is his outspoken and revealing life story. Matthew Hayden opened the Australian innings in Test cricket during the zenith of its cricketing success in recent years. He was part of the side that narrowly lost the enthralling 2005 Ashes series in England, and then trounced England back in Australia 5-0 a year later. And while much of the side's success was due to Glenn McGrath's seam bowling and Shane Warne's spin, Hayden's opening partnerships with the equally flinty Justin Langer laid the bedrock of their many victories. Now, retired from all first-class cricket except the IPL 20/20, he has quickly made a name for himself as a trenchant and articulate summariser on British TV cricket coverage. His autobiography is notable for its inside story, never before told, on many famous cricketing series - the disunity and dysfunction within the Australian camp during the 2005 series, for example.It also offers fascinating first-hand testimony of what it was like to play against greats of the game like Vivian Richards, and face the fearsome West Indies fast-bowling attack. It is also a casebook in the psychology of winning and doing your best: no sportsmen in the modern era have been better at this than Ricky Ponting's Australian Test side.