There is one thing that can be said with certainty about any bowler who wins an Allan Border Medal . . . they deserved it.
Apart from Brett Lee, Glenn McGrath, in the award's first year, is the only one to do it.
Shane Warne missed out. So did Jason Gillespie when he was the world's form quick.
Both deserved medals because there were many years when Australia would have been lost without them.
Medal voting tends to favour batsmen, because in one-day cricket they are easier to vote for . . . a bowler's 2-39 off 10 may equate to a batsman's 50 but the runs usually get the votes.
"Binga" Lee managed to miss the World Cup and still be player of the year.
You could argue the World Cup, as the premier one-day event of the year, deserved to be the main factor in deciding the year's outstanding player.
But Lee's excellence has been sustained when he was available and he was a popular winner.
At 31 he will not get many more chances.
He has never bowled better. It was his time.
Lee has matured as a person and a bowler just when Australia needed him to.
Marriage and fatherhood have been good for him.
Since he married Liz and had a son, Preston, his life has settled down on both sides of the fence.
It took a long time for Lee to truly find himself as an international bowler, but the wait has been worthwhile.
Australia may regret using him almost exclusively as the muscle man of its attack in the four modest years he had between 2001-05.
It was almost as if because the side had Glenn McGrath it felt it didn't need Lee to worry about line and length.
His job was to rattle ribs and quicken pulses.
Now that he has become a more controlled, subtle bowler, it has been proved that poise is as important to a fast bowler as pace and passion.
Hayden could be considered unlucky and the incredible willpower he displayed in surging his way into Australia's World Cup team - and then becoming batsman of the tournament - was one of the greatest feats of his career.
He was so determined to make the World Cup that, at one stage last summer, he seemed to be faltering because he was trying too hard.
Yet getting there was the hard part.
Once he was on the plane, he relaxed. After months of anguish, he became an unstoppable force.