Stephen Fleming retires
Line and Length's new monthly polls have become so popular that successful Test cricketers are retiring in droves just so that they can have the chance of winning one. Stephen Fleming is too much of a gentleman ever to be in contention for pillock of the month, so it is clearly with an eye on following Adam Gilchrist as our next hero of the month that he has announced his departure from the game this morning. He says it is something to do with his wife being due to give birth during New Zealand's summer Test series in England, but that hardly seems credible.
Fleming had potentially one of cricket's least rewarding jobs for near on a decade, yet he did it with dignity and charm and like the two fine cricketers who retired last month, Shaun Pollock and Gilchrist, he made few enemies. Captaining New Zealand these days is not as thankless a task as it was when John Reid did it - three wins in 34 Tests in the 1950s and 1960s - but highlights are few and far between, inevitably given the lack of resources. Yet he won 28 of his 80 Tests as captain and 98 of his 218 ODIs, which isn't shabby. Each time, his wicket was crucial to New Zealand's chances. He averaged more than 50 in Tests that NZ won and 42 in successful ODIs.
Maybe it is wrong to bring up the fine he received early in his Test career for smoking dope, but I do so purely to show that we can all make mistakes early on and turn out well. His batting average will be near enough to 40 when he finishes after next month's Test series with England (most of us will be hoping he does well enough to nudge it up from the present 39.73) but there have been some notable highlights to suggest that perhaps he could have done even better in a better team.
The unbeaten innings of 274 in all but 11 hours in Colombo against Sri Lanka five years ago stands out - he averages 105 from five Tests in Sri Lanka - and mention should be given to his 262 in Cape Town, when only one other New Zealander (James Franklin with 122 at No 9) made more than 50. Together they added an astounding 256 runs for the eighth wicket, the second highest in Test history.
One final plaudit: he has been an astoundingly good county pro at Middlesex, Yorkshire and, in particular, Nottinghamshire, whom he captained to the county championship title in 2005. Here he is with some of the local wildlife. And a man in a squirrel suit too. (It's Graeme Swann on the right).
Fleming is a legend.
This article is right on the nose.
Posted by: Bradley | 15 Feb 2008 13:38:16
May I nominate S Fleming for February's hero of the month, Patrick? And may I be forgiven my unseemly love of Yanqui baseball?
Posted by: John Jorrocks | 14 Feb 2008 18:35:21