5 pre-match rituals of great cricketers

#1 Matthew Hayden

Matthew Hayden was one of the most intimidating batsmen of his era

Former Australian great Matthew Hayden was probably one of the most intimidating batsmen in modern cricket history due to the way in which he bullied the best bowlers in the world. However, behind his batting lay immense powers of concentration, power, technique, self-belief and a pre-match ritual that he continued to engage in even in his final days as a cricketer.

Hayden used to sit in the middle of the pitch ahead of the match and visualise everything. He liked to be left alone and that little ritual allowed him to get in the zone before the game. As he himself said in an interview, “...sitting down in an environment which was comfortable and going through the kind of expectations I had in store for me in the week's period of the Test or the one-dayers, getting used to the conditions, understanding where the breeze is coming from, what the bowler's arms were going to look like, so that there were no surprises on the day...”