When Matthew Hayden climbed on top of a cable car to have his 'Titanic' moment

Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden on a fishing trip; the cable car on top of which Hayden had climbed

Tales of the exploits of Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden at the top of the Australian batting order make up a lot of the folklore in Australian cricket, but exploits of a completely different nature have surfaced – of a time in 2006 when Hayden climbed on top of a ropeway cable car travelling to a mountain, without clothes on – having what Adam Gilchrist has described as his Titanic moment.

After winning the first Test of their three-match series against South Africa in March 2006 by seven wickets, the Australian team decided to be creative about where they sang the traditional Under the Southern Cross I Stand anthem – on the top of Cape Town’s famous Table Mountain, 1,086m above sea level.

Adam Gilchrist talked about the nocturnal mischief his opening partner got up to on the fateful cable car ride.

“They’d somehow conjured the guy who runs the cable car up to the top of the mountain to somehow allow us to take it up to the top to sing the song looking out over the city. Everyone who’s been there knows it’s stunning.”

Gilchrist related how Hayden, having already downed a few beers with the team, stripped down to his birthday suit, opened the manhole latch, climbed up and stood with legs apart on top of the cable car, against the onrushing high-altitude winds.

“Most blokes were in the cable car, safe and sound and Haydos is on the roof of the cable car naked with the only fabric on him an Aussie flag draped around his shoulders,” Gilchrist said.

Matty Hayden not quite the same as DiCaprio: Gilchrist

Gilchrist, who was part of the group who cheered on as Hayden had his mid-air adventure, appreciated the kind of effect the feat would have inspired in Hayden himself but said that it was not a pretty sight to behold for the rest of the Australian players.

“It would have been a frightening experience for any of the wildlife up there. It was high risk and high reward for Haydos. He reckons it was one of the highlights of his career. Probably for the rest of us that had to look at him naked at 11 o’clock at night it was probably a lowlight of our careers.

“Think Leonardo DiCaprio, stylish, classy, a lustful figure for the ladies in that role, and then think Matty Hayden naked pretending to be that and it probably doesn’t have the same effect,” he says.

“It wouldn’t have been a pleasant sight. Fortunately, there was no one up there who would have seen him like that. But we didn’t realise that our wives and partners had been driven up there ahead of us. We managed to get a little bit of clothing on him before we stepped off to greet them.”

Australia went on to win the series 3-0.