Wasn’t Martin crucified by the Aussie selectors when basically they said he lost a test, I think Sydney, one year.
All the recognised batsmen failed, yet Marto missed out for two years on wearing the baggy green.
The Aussie selectors have always failed to see past their NSW and Vic ties and have often thrown WA players under the bus at the selection table instead of their own.
My thoughts go out to Damian Martin and his family at the moment. Hopefully he can make a full recovery from this illness.
Get well soon Marto
Not sure 15 is half of 70 BH…
From howzstat
22 v Eng - ave 38.44
11 v India ave 52.oo
6 v NZ ave 19.71
16 v Pak ave 40.64
15 v WI ave 27.64
Total : 70 tests ave 37.42
No doubt there were some fantastic bowlers back then from all those 5 sides…just thought Hughes under achieved a smidgeon, but anyone who plays test cricket is doing pretty well in my eyes
Crucified by the Mafia of Aussie cricket back then.
The Chappells, Marsh and Lillee screwed him.
Add Willis,Botham,Imran and Safraz to the Windies,he’s done pretty well!
Love his Yarns with JL and Dunny on Sport FM.Fantastic 15 - 20 of Radio and often very funny.
The thing that many overlook Anchor(and I’m not having a go at you here),is that Kim made his peace with Rod and Dennis long ago!
Can’t account for Chapelli,but if Kim is over it,So am I!
Never took offence mate. But yes, you are correct. But even during that time he never spoke about the issue. I recall reading many times about Lillees attacking him in the nets. Bowling his fire balls at Kims body at much less length than a cricket pitch length.
He took it all with a grin, even after being hit.
A couple of blokes namely Richard Hadlee & Kapil Dev were pretty handy bowlers in that era too Grassy…only the Test wicket holding records between them for a decent time!
I reckon between tests and the Benson and Hedges world series, Hughes may have faced the Windies for something like 7 summers in a row in Australia, That’s enough to give anyone nightmares. The sides Kim played were all first class - there is no inflating of the average playing minnows in easier series like we get now
Pretty much Spot On,Winning!
Ahhh the Benson & Hedges World Series Cup days.
Brings back great memories of the Summers here as a young tacker.
During Covid, for some reason NZ Sky sports had hours of Benson and Hedges ODI replays…hard to fathom back then 220 off 50 overs was deemed having a crack…some great matches from memory…with the WI more often than not coming out on top.
Grassy…you say Hughes made his peace with Chappell, Marsh and Lillee…most likely Hughes was the instigator of this forgiveness to, not the other 3…but I guess as long as they were happy for Hughes to forgive them, that’s all hunky dory then…they hung Hughes out to dry, which may have had more impact on him, than the WI bowling attack TBH
Freez, it wasn’t just Greg, but Ian as well. He was relentless in his attacks on Hughes and I took it as as much personal as much as his cricket ability. Or more likely his captaincy.
From what I have read about the split, Hughes was always respectful to Lillee even though he was being assaulted in the nets.
Imran Khan - gee how this once stud of a cricketer and national hero has fallen. Him and his wife living in solitary confinement 23 hours a day serving 17 and 14 years. Politicians here purge their travel allowances or fail to declare gifts and might have to step down at worst or apologise and pay it back. Great cricketer and genuine all-rounder.
Skillful bowlers could actually bowl yorkers back then unlike today.
Whilst the batsmen had to make do with the bats a third of the size of todays and yet unbelievably many continually mishit even with their railway sleeper nowadays!
Back then there was also the unexplainable Reverse swing. The swing that noone could fathom out how it worked.Now sometimes being a bit of a cynic, I might have said there was some artificial help along the way. ![]()
Like the sandpaper and English mints of recent times?
Especially the mints.
Now while I don’t in any way condone the sand paper stuff. There was never any proof the ball bad been tampered with,In fact they did not even change the ball.
The Pakistanis certainly had some way of making the ball reverse swing.But then again, it may have been skill.
watch a show on Foxtel called a brief history of cricket down under. Mikle Whitney spends a heap of time in one of the episodes talking about all he learnt from Imran when he played a season in NSW. There is a bit of science to it, though no doubt there may be some mints involved