Remember the name: Hayden Bishop
Hayden Bishop was awarded the CSA Pathway Batter of the Khaya Majola Week accolade in 2023. Where is he now?
Hayden Bishop is taking the scenic route to professional cricket. This article is brought to you by Beyond a Boundary’s generous patrons.
Hayden Bishop wanted to give up playing cricket. Not because he had fallen out of love with the game. Bishop fell in love with cricket before he understood the game. He favourite pastime as a toddler was hitting a ball, one-handed, with his plastic bat all over the house.
He became the 13th member of the Zululand Cricket Club as soon as he could walk. Bishop was a familiar sight on the side of the field, facing throwdowns from his father’s teammates. At the close of play, he was the first one in the change room for the fines meeting with a beer bottle filled with water.
“I was obsessed from day one. My dad never had a day off from the time I could bat properly. He would have to come home from work and the first thing I would make him do was throw me tennis balls which I would smash around for hours on end,” Bishop recalled.
The decision to give up wasn’t driven by a lack of time in the middle. Most batters have a high probability in the first 13 balls of the innings. Not Bishop. He is almost impossible to dislodge early on. Part of the reason for that was the way he learned how to play the game.
Backyard cricket is a tried and tested way to piss off neighbours and deplete goodwill. Balls cannoning into windows. Balls scaring lounging pets. The incessant noise pollution of bat on ball sounds. The older Bishop turned the garage into cricket nets for everyone’s peace of mind.
The version of the game Bishop and his friends played in the garage had a million ways to be dismissed and only a handful to stay in. They had bowled, lbws on anything striking the foot, and edges into the back net were also dismissals. You were out stumped if the you were still out your crease when the ball hit the back net. The list was endless.
“We were very strict and scoring runs only came off the back of either a four or a six. It was very serious and bowler friendly venue,” Bishop shared.
The runs were the issue. Not that he couldn’t get the ball off the square. If anything, Bishop was one of Kearsney College’s most consistent scorer, and he was only in Grade 10. He was averaging in the mid-50s. The issue was that he wasn’t scoring the runs he wanted. His run chart had a lot of 70s and 80s, but no 100s.
“He was despondent when he came to me. He said that he didn’t think he was good at this game because he couldn’t get to triple figures like other kids,” Gary, Bishop’s father, remembered.
Father and son discounted training power-hitting as a way to improve his batting because Bishop didn’t have the long levers; he was on the small side compared to his teammates. However, Bishop was good at running. The decision was to reduce dot balls by taking more singles. He nurdled good balls for singles, turned ones into twos and bad balls either landed in the stands or raced to the ropes.
Bishop started converting almost immediately. His best was an unbeaten 157 against Michaelhouse in his matric year. He ran out of balls to score from, while Michaelhouse, who batted second and were bowled out for 163, ran out of batters. He finished the season with 1428 runs at an average of 54.9 - a record tally in the history of Kearsney College cricket.
Later that year, Bishop outscored all the other batters at the Khaya Majola Week. He recorded a century and two fifties on his way to 263 runs for an average of 65,75. CSA awarded him the Batter of the Khaya Majola Week award for his efforts. Selectors also picked him for the SA Schools team, he was impossible to overlook.
In early 2024, Bishop scored back-to-back 121s at the Cubs Week. He made 121 from 129 balls against the Northerns Champions and 121 off 140 balls against the Eastern Warriors. He was combining his two superpowers, the ability to stay in and strike rotation. His stats helped to open the doors at Tuks.
Bishop didn’t need to hear people suggesting that he batted too slowly for the modern game. He watched the T20 revolution and noticed that he needed to expand his game. It was time for another chat with Gary, only this time, there was no questioning his ability.
“I was very good at staying in but my natural conservative approach held me back a bit from scoring quick enough. My dad and I sat down and had a chat,” he revealed.
For most players raised on first-class and 50-over cricket, increased boundary options means a lot of flailing arms and getting into uncomfortable positions in attempts at playing shots named after people or actions. Bishop’s first stop was the gym.
“I needed to get stronger because I’ve always been smaller than the rest,” Bishop said.
Now that he had added muscle, the next step was trying to hit every ball for six in the nets. It didn’t matter where it pitched, Bishop, just hit indiscriminately. It was his way of figuring out where to hit and what balls to take on. Bishop’s natural inclination is to let the ball come to him, in his new approach he focused more on going to fetching the ball to change the contact point. He preferred that to swinging harder and risk losing his shape.
Those changes came with tweaks to his technique, but the most important change he made was mental. The joys of batting in the nets is that one can be dismissed countless times without having to leave the crease. It helped him take the fear of going out away and helped him embrace playing with more freedom.
“At first it was about more power but recently it has become more of a thought process of getting more comfortable with moving around the crease and hitting those fancy/creative shots. Lately it’s been about being more effective with it and throwing the bowlers off there lines with movements and more creative shots rather than looking to just hit out to transfer pressure,” Bishop revealed.
Bishop finished the season with two centuries and five half-tons for a tally of 818 runs across all competitions for Tuks. He had the third highest average, 54.5, for Tuks. His contributions helped them on their way to a slew of titles; the Titans Premier League, the 50-over Super League, and the National Club Championship.
Like his namesake on the chess board, Bishop is moving in a diagonal manner. Sometimes a step at a time, at other moments two, three, five, or five steps. Always going upwards. Sometimes his path is blocked by another piece, but that doesn’t matter, Bishop keeps working, while bidding his time.
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