There are several actors and movies that played a motivator’s role in many peoples’ life sometimes and Hollywood’s ace actor Tom Cruise, and his American action flick, “The Last Samurai” are among them, which inspired an Australian cricketer – Matthew Hayden.
Tom Cruise, who is known for his versatile and powerful acting, has influenced the lives of a lot of people and the latest one is a cricketer Hayden who had been also inspired by his character in the film.
In 2003’s super action and blockbuster drama, Tom played the role of United States Captain of the 7th Cavalry Regiment whereof a scene served as a source of inspiration to the former Australian opener.
During a recent conversation with Shane Watson on his podcast Lessons Learnt with The Great, Hayden revealed that a scene in the film “The Last Samurai” – where Cruise's character goes down in one-on-one combat and challenged shortly after to clear his mind and thoughts for the final battle against the Imperial Army, has played a real eye-opener for him and changed his mental approach to batting.
On the show, Matthew further went on to reveal that the scene changed his career forever and made him challenge to incorporate the mental side and focus on his career and game.
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Hayden said on the podcast, “The mental aspects of the game, which transfer over to the physical aspects of the game. There's a stillness and a beauty in batting which is a mediation in itself that we all miss, still to this day, that connection purely around having nothing but an empty vessel to work with so that you can absorb and retain information quicker.”
Noteworthy, the left-hander had a 14-year glorious international career and played a key role in Ricky Ponting-led Australian team’s dominance in the world cricket across formats. He represented Australia in 103 Tests, 161 ODIs and 9 T20Is, and is still active as a commentator.
(With FP Trending Inputs)
