Damien Martyn - I saw it coming, but today

I happened to watch the highlights of the last Test and in hindsight, I could see Martyn's retirement wasn't far away. When Hussey played that not-so-unusual delightful knock in the last session and drove his team to an improbably win, almost every Aussie in the dressing room was jumping up in joy, but Martyn wasn't so effervescent. Even when the Australian team almost did a lap of honour, Martyn just had to be content with a security/photographer to hug while there was some player or support staff for every other member of the squad to share the joy.

Was he feeling so let down due to his performances, or the lack of it? If so, aren't the Aussies known for rallying around men who seem to be in lower morale? Not so long ago, he was controversially part of the Aussie celebration. How quickly does life change?

Labels: ashes, ashes 2006, australia, england, martyn

Thus spake Ganesh @ 9:12 pm | Sledge/Read 1 sledge(s)
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Damien Martyn retirement creates selection headache

Damien Martyn, who will always remain one of the several bones of contention between Ganesh and me in terms of our rating of his batting (I don't think highly of him, while Ganesh drools over his batting!), announced a shock decision to retire from international and domestic cricket with immediate effect.

He suffered a tendonitis injury before the Brisbane test and scores of 29, 11 & 5 in a series where other Aussie batsmen (except Hayden) have scored runs, meant that his place was probably up for grabs. Martyn won't thus be able to finish off his career at his home ground, the WACA at Perth.

Martyn's been a scourge of India for a while, especially in the last 2-3 years. He played a superb hand in the 2003 World Cup final. In 2004 when Australia toured India, after a couple of failures early on, he figured out that committing himself to front-foot play was an invitation to disaster with Kumble and Harbhajan bowling well in tandem. He then began to play the ball as late as possible, and then turned the series around for himself and his team, first with a huge stand with Gillespie at Chepauk and then nearly scoring two centuries at Nagpur. He said that watching Tendulkar bat in 2001 motivated him to bat the way he did in 2004 in India!

But these performances against India aren't obviously why I don't rate him too highly. He may have been Mark Waugh II, but there was something about him which kept convincing me that far too often, if the heat was on, he wasn't going to turn up. Perhaps I was subconsciously affected by the way he invariably bats in a shareware cricket game I play occasionally. Whenever I picked him, his batting was totally in contrast to what the situation warranted - if Australia needed quick runs with 5 overs in hand, he'd make a priceless 12(17). If Australia were 30/3 and needed to bat out 50 overs, he'd make a priceless 17(17). I can't recollect games of the top of my head when he did similar things in real life, but I'm certain he did. In that respect, I place him on a similar pedestal as Jacques Kallis, who does that sort of thing too often for an ICC Player of the Year!

Martyn was among the casualties after Australia's loss in last summer's Ashes series, but was brought back against South Africa.

But the selection headache I referred to has nothing to do with the Ashes. Martyn's retirement now means that the middle-order in the All-Star book cricket XI looks quite solid. There're 2 good openers, 3 good top-order batsmen, 2 good all-rounders, 1 very good keeper, a couple of medium pacers and one genuine quick. Like I said earlier, the side lacks a quality spinner though.

My XI would now read (in batting order): Mark Richardson, Michael Slater, Nasser Hussain, Damien Martyn, Graham Thorpe, Chris Cairns, Heath Streak (c), Phil DeFreitas, Jack Russell (wk), Lucy Pearson and Allan Donald. Venkatesh Prasad narrowly misses out because of Lucy Pearson's superior fielding skills. Perhaps Martyn pushed Venkatesh Prasad off the squad list :)

Labels: ashes, ashes 2006, australia, book cricket, england, martyn, retire

Thus spake Jagadish @ 6:14 pm | Sledge/Read 2 sledge(s)
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Injuries galore!

Steve Harmison misses tour game against South Australia with a side strain.

Damien Martyn and Shane Watson injured, tendonitis and hamstring injury respectively.

Sehwag, and his injured right ring finger, will miss the first one-dayer against South Africa.

Labels: ashes, ashes 2006, martyn

Thus spake Jagadish @ 5:24 pm | Sledge/Read 1 sledge(s)
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Rude Aussies?



Truth? Or a case of sour grapes?

Australia won the event. India didn't make it past the first round.

Updates

The Bladder brilliantly puts it in perspective - no one died. So we shouldn't be making such a huge fuss of it.

Yes, it showed a distinct lack of grace, lack of appreciation of a host's culture and thoughtlessness towards shoving a 65-year old minister. But if Pawar doesn't want to make it an issue, why bother?

What would my reaction have been had an Indian team won a tournament in Australia and gestured to/pushed some Australian minister/Cricket Australia chairman? I'd not have cared if Aussies had called my team a bunch of Philistines. I'd just point them to the trophy we won. End of story.

Damien Martyn has now apologized. "I didn't mean to offend him and I apologise if I did so. There was nothing in it other than me trying to help him out as there was a crush of people."

Labels: 2006 champions trophy, bcci, champions trophy, martyn, sharad pawar

Thus spake Jagadish @ 10:02 am | Sledge/Read 10 sledge(s)
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Personality peep: Martyn, Lee and Warne

Peter English meets Damien Martyn and chats about his career, the ups and lows, etc.

Mike Atherton reckons that Brett Lee could be the man to revive Australia's Ashes campaign.

Mark Nicholas feels that Shane Warne may actually be able to put his past behind him and be back at his best when the first test starts.

The man himself is ready for the challenge and pleads with the media not to overdo things.

Labels: martyn

Thus spake Jagadish @ 12:08 pm | Sledge/Read 0 sledge(s)
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Blame it on Tendulkar

Damien Martyn, who has had an absolutely stunning year in test cricket credits his improvement to watching Tendulkar's footwork and batting during that series in 2001 when he didnt get to play a test. He is now the frontrunner for the annual Allan Border medal.

Labels: martyn

Thus spake Jagadish @ 1:26 pm | Sledge/Read 0 sledge(s)
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India was straightaway pushed to the back foot after losing the toss for the third successive time. This time around though, it was Dravid's turn to do the honours as Ganguly has a groin strain. The other absentees from the second test are Yuvraj, Harbhajan & Pathan. Tendulkar, Akash Chopra, Murali Kartik & Agarkar will play instead.

Australia ended the first day well in control at 362/7. The game went on similar lines to the Madras test. Australia were off to a rollicking start, suffered a mild collapse, Damien Martyn stroked a superb century, Lehmann batted aggressively for a while, Zaheer bowled very well while Parthiv looked like he was more likely to catch a cold than the cricket ball. India have an uphill task ahead, they need to dismiss Australia for less than 400 and bat well and bat big, score 600 perhaps to put Australia under some sort of pressure. Its a tall order. If India win or draw this, the series is still alive. That is a whole lot to play for!

Labels: aus v ind 2004, martyn

Thus spake Ganesh @ 9:35 am | Sledge/Read 0 sledge(s)
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