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Stephen Fleming: The Messiah of New Zealand
Cricket |
- Karthik Narayan
New
Zealand cricket has always been a bowl of
surprises for the universal audience, springing
up one every now and then, and Stephen Fleming
was the surprise unleashed one fine morning in
the summer of 1993-94.
When Stephen missed his century on debut
against the Indians at Hamilton in 1993-94, he
had every reason to feel bad about it. Not
simply because it would have been great to get a
century on Debut, but the fact is, his First ton
in tests took him four long years to arrive.
Finally the question was answered, as Fleming
had conquered a personal quest that had eluded
him for so many years.
A score of 129 against England at Auckland
was a huge sigh of relief for Fleming. If Test
hundreds at the end of the career are the judge
of a good batsman, then Fleming will not figure
in that prominent list. However, one has to
consider that he has the potential to much more
than what he has shown so far. Few other
centuries have come, including a mega show of
274* in the first test against Sri Lanka in Sri
Lanka in 2003, which was a tremendous effort,
keeping in mind that much has been written about
Sri Lankan spin tracks, and the New Zealand
players not being good players of spin.
Fleming is New Zealand’s most capped player
in tests with 85 tests, surpassing Martin Crowe
recently when New Zealand toured Bangladesh on
Oct 26, 2004. This 31 year old also has become
the highest run aggregator for New Zealand when
he crossed Martin Crowe on that very day, that
ever-mercurial captain of the 1990s. Fleming is
in the traditional mould, with the hands
upright, the knees bent, and the follow through
of a batsman in the traditional mould. He would
not be an exciting batsman in the mould of a
Richards, or Gilchrist, he is more a “method
player”, more technically equipped rather than
score runs at a Free Willy rate.
Potentially good enough for a lot more runs,
he has been guilty of frittering away the good
starts to his innings. His scores average around
38 runs every innings, which does not quite
reflect the true story. He is capable of much
more than that! Only recently he has made those
fine tuning to his batting and made sure he
converts his starts into much more than a mere
fifty. He has the finest of on drives, a stroke
one can associate with Fleming purely for the
richness with which he executes that shot.
Amongst contemporary Cricket captains, one of
the finest and vastly experienced skippers would
be this Kiwi that has flown all around the world
with his talented team. He has led New Zealand
in 63 tests till date, which puts him as the
most capped captain amongst present day teams!
Fleming has always been a captain with a keen
mind to learn, improvising his unique field
placements, the ability to make thing happen for
New Zealand. He rings in those changes every now
and then, and he has built his ideologies on
Martin Crowe, a super innovator of the 1990s,
when New Zealand cricket was just taking wing.
This Christchurch born left-hander’s
cricketing brain ticks all 24 X 7, and he always
rings in those changes in the bowling at the
right time and he is an expert in marshalling
his resources. Even though New Zealand does not
boast of the super heroes of cricket, there are
the useful characters of cricket such as Astle,
Harris, Cairns and Vettori and Fleming has made
maximum use of these bits and pieces players.
Fleming has always led from the front, with his
astute captaincy and his orthodox batting when
the chips are down making him a very intelligent
captain.
His One Day International record is also
pretty good, considering his low key in the
batting line up at Number Five – he has 6
centuries and a handful of fifties (37) in 225
ODIs at an average of 32.30. He has the unique
distinction of leading New Zealand for the most
number of Tests and ODIs, something which one
cannot associate with contemporary captains.
One incident that stands out in Fleming’s
captaincy and astute thinking was when New
Zealand met Australia in an ODI on Jan 29, 2002
at MCG. Fleming noticed that there were 3
fielders outside the 30 yards ring during the
first fifteen overs during the match, when
Fleming himself was batting; and he pointed it
out to the umpires, and soon that was rectified.
That Fleming was reprimanded 40% of his match
fee later was totally unfair on him, but it took
that special thinking and keenness of mind at
that time and that proves why he has been New
Zealand’s best captain till date!
The New Zealand selectors have always held
their faith on Fleming. Though at one stage,
Fleming’s ODI batting was appalling, and pretty
ordinary, they placed enough faith and retained
him as skipper and he has paid rich dividends.
He has been in charge of a team not known for
super stars, yet under the guise of underdogs
can choke even the top teams with big names with
their great high flying cricket. Who would
forget their World Cup exploits in the 1996 and
1999 editions, when New Zealand gave every team
the leather chase!
If there’s a Hall of Fame for the great
players of New Zealand cricket, this man would
surely figure into the thick of things, as he
has been the finest messiah for New Zealand
cricket over these 10 years of cricket for New
Zealand.
Cricketfundas.com wishes this King Kiwi all
the best ahead of a bright future, where we are
sure to see more of this man’s skills with the
bat and as he dons that Black thinking cap as
Skipper.
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