Calcutta: Just under a year ago, in a one-on-one with The Telegraph during Team India’s tour of Australia, Matthew Hayden made the point that “being consistent is a part of my life.”

Today, the 37-year-old has quit.

Not because he couldn’t have given it another shot, but because the cornerstone of his cricket — consistency — had gone.

Yes, Hayden left at a time when questions had begun to be asked. Yet, despite averaging under 30 in his last 10 Tests, he finished with an awesome 50.74, the best by any opener who took guard (in the most demanding form) over a period of time.

[Our very own Sunil Gavaskar has scored more, but is a close second where averages specific to opening the innings are concerned.]

Despite having been short on runs this season, Hayden continued to have a presence and it’s to be seen how Australia cope with the departure of another legend.

Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Adam Gilchrist and now…

Hayden’s 103-Test career could be split into two phases: From early 1994 to the 2001 series in India and that phenomenal tour (549 runs in three Tests) onwards.

Had Hayden not made such an impression then, he would by now probably have been a star chef somewhere.

Or managing fishing expeditions off the Queensland coast.

Sourav Ganguly’s men won 2-1, a series still regarded as one of the finest of all time, but Hayden’s career got resurrected and bowlers began to fear him.

Indeed, be it new-ball operators or tweakers, they got intimidated in the manner the bowlers of the 1980s used to be each time Vivian Richards took guard after that arrogant walk to the square.

Thirty hundreds (including a best of 380, briefly the highest individual score) and close to 9,000 runs is testimony to Hayden’s standing in Tests.

Actually, the southpaw did exceedingly well in ODIs as well (over 6,000 runs at an average of 43-plus), quite remarkable for somebody once seen as rather ill-suited for the older form of limited overs cricket.

Hayden wasn’t a certainty in ODIs at the start of the 2006-07 (World Cup) season, yet by the time it ended, he’d become the highest scorer in that edition and also smashed the fastest hundred (off 66 balls against South Africa) in World Cup history.

During the interview last year, I’d asked Hayden if he had to re-invent himself as a one-day cricketer. His answer: “Not at all… Because at no point then did I think I was out of nick or that my non-selection was justified… I didn’t dwell on my exclusion too much because I was confident an opportunity would come again…”

It did and he made it count.

Moving away from on-field cricket, it was out of character for Hayden to have called Harbhajan Singh (whose career also got revived in that 2001 series) an “obnoxious little weed” after the Monkeygate affair, a comment which disappointed many admirers in India.

Hayden got away with a reprimand from Cricket Australia, but that will remain an absolutely avoidable off the field blot.

What’s perhaps not well known is that Hayden’s deeply religious (“There’s a gentle guidance in whatever we do in life and, through this journey, I’ve tried to be the best person I can be… The faith of a person isn’t important, it’s the moral direction he gives which is…”) and has been somewhat influenced by Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela.

Incidentally, the “obnoxious little weed” bit was said on Radio Brisbane, in the same programme where Hayden challenged Ishant Sharma to a bout in the boxing ring!

Hayden, though, will be remembered for 24-carat performances and not poorly phrased and ill-timed comments.

Thankfully, that is.

He’d himself ended our last one-on-one thus: “…Hopefully, I’ll be remembered as somebody who was passionate and played entertaining cricket… Hopefully, I’ll be remembered as somebody who delivered both at home and overseas… I’ll be there till the time I’m enjoying the game… I reckon I’ll know when it’s time to go…”

Hayden did, eventually.