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Aussie coach, Hussey back Hayden for the long haul

ANI, December 23,2008
Melbourne, Dec 23 (ANI): Australian team hopes out of form opener Mathew Hayden will continue his phenomenal record at the MCG, a venue he will be pleased to return to for the second Test against South Africa, insisting that Hayden is not ready to retire and wants to take part in their two major tours of 2009.
Teammate Mike Hussey said Hayden had not spoken about retiring, while coach Tim Nielsen wanted the Queenslander's experience for next year's demanding tours of South Africa and England, The Age reported.
"My understanding and talking to Matthew is he's committed to playing for Australia. Matthew is one of the finest players that Australia has ever produced ... so you certainly want those players around your team whenever you can have them, they don't grow on trees," Nielsen said.
"It's important that when you are playing the big sides you have your best team available and when Matthew's playing at his best he is a huge bonus for us," he added.
Hayden's past 13 innings have yielded 282 runs at 23.50, so he will relish a return to the MCG, where he averages 76.57 from nine matches.
"We always count runs and we'd like him to be making more runs than he is at the moment, but if he can get through that early period like all opening batsman and get a start this week, he will show his true colours," Neilsen said.
"He's made (six) hundreds in the last (seven) Test matches here and we're looking forward to him doing that again this week."
Hussey warned against writing off a champion, as Hayden would "definitely" post a big score soon. (ANI)