Cricket Matthew Hayden, one of the last survivors of the Australia team that has dominated world cricket for the best part of two decades, will not be in the side that defends the Ashes in England this summer.

Hayden, 37, has ended weeks of speculation by announcing his retirement, thereby pre-empting the selectors who had dropped him from the one-day international and Twenty20 squads and were deliberating over whether to pick him for the three Tests in South Africa that precede the England tour.

It has been an agonising decision for Hayden, who has played in 103 Tests, 161 one-day internationals and nine Twenty20 matches. Among Australia batsmen, only Allan Border, Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting have scored more than his 8,625 Test runs; only Ponting and Steve Waugh have scored more than his 30 Test centuries. And his 380 against Zimbabwe in Perth in 2003-04 remains the highest Test score by an Australia batsman.

Unfortunately for Hayden, his runs have dried up this winter. In five Tests in Australia - two against New Zealand, three against South Africa - he has scored only 149 runs. He follows Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Justin Langer and Adam Gilchrist into Test retirement.

Hayden, who has fought his way back before, most notably in England in 2005 when he was on the verge of being dropped, had been expected to delay his decision until after he had played for Queensland in their Sheffield Shield match against Western Australia at the end of the month.

“The flame does burn within and I guess that may be the hardest part to reckon with,” he said at the end of what has turned out to be his last Test against South Africa. “It is as simple as playing out the summer, being committed to that and taking the time and energy to just get back on the horse or make a decision not to.”

That decision has now been made, leaving Simon Katich and Phil Jaques, now recovered from a back injury, to contest the opening position with Chris Rogers and Phillip Hughes, the prolific 20-year-old New South Wales batsman.