Stuart MacGill retires from international cricket

Stuart MacGill, who really ought to have changed his name to 'Stuart Long Hop MacGill' a long time ago, has retired from international cricket. One week or so ago, he had bowled a lot of tripe in the first test at Jamaica.

I've never really had a good opinion about him, and it isn't based just on his 'performance' when India toured Australia in 2003/04. I've watched him play against other opposition, and pretty much had the same conclusion: Quite over-rated. Maybe Warne and Kumble's accuracy resulted in me sub-consciously having a much higher bar on the number of long-hops that leg-spinners were allowed to bowl, but I frequently saw MacGill bowl far too many. It's a pity that he didn't play in the recent India-Australia series, for while India would have given him as many wickets as Hogg got, he wouldn't have played the crucial knock at Sydney that Hogg did.

Funny how none of the Aussie commentators point out that nearly 16% of MacGill's wickets were against Bangladesh. They always do so when it comes to Murali. MacGill also did well against England and South Africa, but that's something you came to expect!

Potentially the only time I had any sort of appreciation for an act of his was when he announced that he would not be touring Zimbabwe in 2004 over moral grounds.

Cricinfo ends its report about his retirement with:

While the end was not as he had hoped, MacGill will be remembered as an example of Australia's incredible depth during the Waugh and Ponting eras, and as one the best contemporary spinners.

In my opinion, MacGill was perhaps the 7th (or at best 6th) best spinner in the last 15 years: Warne, Murali, Kumble, Saqlain Mushtaq, Daniel Vettori, Mushtaq Ahmed, MacGill and Harbhajan being my list.

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