Will Damien Martyn stand up and be counted ??

[JLC]

Next you will be saying Damian Martyn is a better player.....lol Please spare me.

The one day players now a days the batsman have it pretty good with most grounds having the boundary line roped in thus making it easier to hit fours and sixes and the wickets are more often than not batter friendly. Dean Jones in his era did superbly in the one day form of the game.

jlc

[commonwombat]

JLC, I have never remotely suggested that Martyn is a superior one-day player. Personally, I think his time in LOI is near enough to over as is probably the case with Bevan.

For Dyso-educative purposes as well as throwing a bucket of cold water over the outraged JLC, I do hereby submit some career stats of Dean Mervyn Jones.

Test career: 52 matches, 89 innings, 3631 runs, HS 206, average 46.55 (did you read that Dyso?), 11 100's and 14 50's.

LOI career: 164 matches, 161 innings, 6068 runs, HS 145, ave 44.61, sr 72.56, 7 100's and 46 50's.

Test batting against particular countries:
England: 17 matches, 1320 runs, HS 184, ave 50.76, 3 100's and 8 50's.

India: 8 matches, 681 runs, HS 210, ave 61.90, 2 100's and 2 50's.

Sri Lanka: 6 matches, 537 runs, HS 118, ave 59.66, 3 100's and 2 50's.

West Indies: 10 matches, 631 runs, HS 216, ave 37.41, 1 100 and 1 50.

Pakistan: 6 matches, 291 runs, HS 121, ave 36.37, 2 100's.

NZ: 5 matches, 171 runs, HS 99, ave 24.42, 1 50.

What can we deduce from this?? Playing at the time that he did, he could justifiably be classified as Australia's first great LOI batsman (the case for Greg Chappell could well be argued).

At Test level, he clearly had good success against England, India and Sri Lanka, all tough opponents esp at home. Against the then yardstick, West Indies, the story is considerably less impressive with his average and figures boosted by the ONE undeniably superb double ton at Adelaide, reckon he owes Merv beers for life for that effort.

Could read ditto for Pakistan who boasted a similarly strong pace attack where he had a horror movie tour and his figures are resurrected from abyssmal by 2 tons at home.NZ, and Sir Wanker. There's one 99 in there, otherwise we're looking at Warne-Cullinan stats fellas.

[JLC]

Which Australian batsman excelled against the West Indies at that time?? Most batsman in world cricket struggled against the Windies and thats what made them the best. The only Australian batsman probably was Alan Border. Even the great Steve Waugh struggled against them in their prime.

jlc

[commonwombat]

Ever thought of entering politics, JLC ??? Some of yr evasions, about turns and abrupt changes would make Johnny Howard proud.

BTW, Border had his outs against the Windies too. That is not the point. The fact is that you have been trying to paint Mr Jones as something he was not.

Undeniably great one-day batsman, he certainly was. His Test record was certainly very repectable but frankly cannot be classified as great. He had undeniably excellent stats against sides like England, India and Sri Lanka. By no means am I denigrating these performances as many others failed against these opponents esp when playing away.

However against such opponents as the Windies, Pakistan and New Zealand who possessed many fine and indeed great pace bowlers over the period; his record is considerably less impressive. Against these teams, his figures were saved from complete ruin by occaissional heroics.

A realistic but fair summation is that he was frequently found wanting by a number of great pace bowlers going round at the time. Before you declare Wombat season, do please have a look at his stats which do bear out I'm saying.

[JLC]

Which batsman at that time excelled ??

jlc

[commonwombat]

Ah JLC, my point is that he was also found out by the Pakistanis ( ie Imran, Akram etc) and by Hadlee as well.

That would give a clue that he was found generally found wanting by many of the class pacemen going around at the time.

[JLC]

Yeah and which batsman in the Australian team or around the world excelled against those attacks??

Lets not forget Hayden was found short when facing Donald.

It would be wonderful if Jones could swap eras and face the likes of Argarkar and Zimbabwe the current West Indian and Kiwi teams and batsman like Langer and Martyn and even Hayden faced the likes of Akram, Khan, Hadlee, Ambrose in their prime.

jlc

[Johnson#26]

Its hard to beleive that his last century in a test match was in Jo'burg in 01/02 when he put on that amazing partnership with Gillie! Another fact is that all of Hayden, Langer, Ponting, Lehmann, Waugh, Love, Katich & Gilchrist have all made centurys in either 2003 or January 2004. Martynis the only member of the top 7 of the past 13 months NOT to have made a century.

[The Prototype]

Martyn's safe for the rest of the series, they'll probably "rest" him soon, and then throw someone else into the mix (who it will be I wouldn't have a clue) Martyn's in a rut which he hasn't seemed to work out of, so it's either drop him, or work out what they can do to get him out of it. Because right now, he isn't showing anything, well against India anyway, he seemed to go okay against Zimbabwe down here.

[Cam]

i'm sick of watching tired cricketers. Drop Martyn, Harvey & maybe Bevan for good. We need new blood and we need it now. Bring in Shaun Marsh, Katich & maybe another all rounder.

I think Ponting is going to find out what it was like being Richie Richardson.

[piedys]

[commonwombat]

Yes Dyso,

By no means was I rubbishing his record which overall was respectable merely putting the facts forward and into perspective when some were projecting him as some sort of batting god.

Do certainly agree with yr point about changing bat brand. Have never thought much of Kookaburra bats especially in their earlier years when I'd have chosen a fence paling ahead of them.

Then again over my career I was a cricket bat conservative being a Gray-Nicholls or Duncan Fearnley man myself although did hit 150 in a grade match at Manly back in 89 with a team-mates County once. Bastard made me hand it back though.

Think Cam has summed up the team situation perfectly.

[JLC]

Another Golden Duck to the collection for Damian.

Save Damian for Zimbabwe........lol

jlc

[Collies4Eva]

Marto's a waste of space. he should be dropped for Michael Clarke in the Tests and by Mike Hussey in the ODIs

[JLC]

Martyn is FINALLY being exposed for the dud he is.

jlc