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Motivation Quote by Matthew Hayden

"Both sides have been playing tremendous cricket over a couple of years and they're both very good units"

About this Quote

Hayden’s line reads like boilerplate, but that’s the point: it’s high-level sports diplomacy designed to cool a room that’s already overheating. When he says “both sides,” he’s not just naming opponents; he’s framing the contest as legitimacy versus legitimacy. No one flukes their way into “tremendous cricket over a couple of years.” That time horizon matters. It’s a quiet rebuttal to the most common fan habit in modern cricket discourse: treating every series as proof of permanent supremacy. Hayden is pushing back against the emotional volatility of form, reminding audiences that elite teams are built, not conjured.

The phrase “very good units” is tellingly impersonal. Hayden avoids “teams” or “players,” words that invite narratives about heroes, villains, and individual failure. “Units” is the language of systems: planning, depth, role clarity, execution. It nods to how contemporary cricket is won - by analytics, workload management, interchangeable skills, and a bench that can actually replace a star. He’s also signaling respect without giving away fear: praise as a strategic neutralizer.

Contextually, this is the kind of sentence you deploy before a high-stakes series when every microphone is baited for controversy. Hayden, a former elite batter turned commentator, understands that hype sells but destabilizes. His intent is to elevate the match while refusing to sharpen it into a grudge, keeping the focus on standards rather than soap opera.

Quote Details

TopicSports
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Hayden, Matthew. (2026, January 16). Both sides have been playing tremendous cricket over a couple of years and they're both very good units. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/both-sides-have-been-playing-tremendous-cricket-104423/

Chicago Style
Hayden, Matthew. "Both sides have been playing tremendous cricket over a couple of years and they're both very good units." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/both-sides-have-been-playing-tremendous-cricket-104423/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Both sides have been playing tremendous cricket over a couple of years and they're both very good units." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/both-sides-have-been-playing-tremendous-cricket-104423/. Accessed 13 Feb. 2026.

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Matthew Hayden on Both Teams Playing Tremendous Cricket
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About the Author

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Matthew Hayden (born October 29, 1971) is a Athlete from Australia.

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