| 
Posts and words
Loading ...Clearly his time was up. Good on him for realising that and doing the right thing. It must have been an incredibly hard – and brave – decision to make. Now we can remember him as a great player (instrumental in our Cahmion$ Trophy win, for example) rather than the man that was sacked.
England may be in a slightly better position now if one or two of their players followed suit.
Blimey Marto, we didn’t mean it!
By Scott 4 years ago, mid-December Add your comment below
From the Corridor last week:
Martyn (Retail Manager): The irritating but smooth bloke you’re always trying to get rid of but customers love him and he sells just enough to keep his place.
I think there’s a bit more to Damien Martyn’s retirement then meets the eye. With Martyn, there always is. He is a sensitive and wary character that doesn’t care for the spotlight, and he’s had enough of the guff that comes with being a Test cricketer. That’s what I am guessing has happened here.
He wasn’t always so shy though.
Martyn was the brightest star in a ‘new wave’ of talented young Australian batsmen that emerged around 1990. He captained Australia’s under 19 side that toured England, leading the likes of Adam Gilchrist. There were plenty of other good players in that ‘new wave’ like Matthew Hayden, Darren Lehmann and Justin Langer. But there was no doubt that ‘Marto’ was the best.
He was ‘fast-tracked’ as they say, and along with Justin Langer, he was cast into the furnace of facing Ambrose and Walsh and co at their height in 1992-93. He proved he had the makings, scoring a vital half century in the same match that Warne first made his name.
But he couldn’t score that breakthrough century that would have sealed his place, and there were stories going ’round the traps’ about his attitude. He had replaced Dean Jones in the side and brought not only a Jones-like talent, but a Jones-like mouth. When he specacularly failed to bring Australia home in a Test match the next summer, he was made the scapegoat, and cast back into the grind of State cricket.
The demotion was hard for Martyn and he lost his way for several years. He was even dropped from the West Australian side for a while, and it seemed a great talent had been lost.
I do not know what it was that turned things around for him. However, he got back into the side when Ricky Ponting injured his knee prior to the New Zealand tour of 1999/2000, and made some valuable contributions. However he was a different sort of player- still as elegant and obviously talented as ever, but clearly not altogether anxious to attract attention.
He piled on the runs though, and had the support of his team-mates. 2004 was his golden year, as he scored centuries against India and Sri Lanka that were crucial to series victories. In 2003 he had played in the World Cup Final with a broken finger and still scored a masterful innings, albiet completely over-shadowed by Ricky Ponting. And this year in the ICC Champion’s Trophy, he was playing as well as ever.
Well, whatever is behind this, good luck to ‘Marto’ in whatever he decides to do. He got married in the off-season, and maybe he just wants to settle down and enjoy life. He left plenty of fond memories in the minds of cricket lovers not just in Australia but around the world.
Tags: 2003-world-cup-final, adam-gilchrist, courtney-walsh, curtly-ambrose, damien-martyn, darren-lehmann, justin-langer, matthew-hayden, retirement, ricky-ponting, shane-warne |
8 Responses to “Blimey Marto, we didn’t mean it!”
December 8th, 2006 at 1.45 pm
December 8th, 2006 at 1.46 pm
Crikey – Champion$. No idea what happened there!
December 8th, 2006 at 11.11 pm
Damien Martyn retires…
Runs: 4406
Avge: 46.37
Highest score: 165 (against New Zealand)
I’m sure you’ve heard of Damien Martyn’s retirement from the game. He surprised everyone with that one, including Cricket Australia and his fellow players. During the vic…
December 9th, 2006 at 2.19 am
must have been specially difficult to not play his last test at home
December 9th, 2006 at 4.24 am
My favourite cricketer – just made batting look artful and elegent. Mastered timing balls through cover and point for four with a mere forward defensive shot.
Will be missed, but his act of retirement solves many problems for the selectors and additionally he bows out gracefully and graciously in the process.
December 11th, 2006 at 1.31 pm
In a nutshell – how would you feel if your side had thrashed the no 2 team in the world twice and you had won a champions trophy off your own bat a couple of weeks before – and you have every media agency questioning your right to your spot.
Enjoy your life marto, cricket watching is poorer now without you. You made the good look ordinary. Aus can kiss that world cup goodbye now
December 12th, 2006 at 2.52 am
Scott, I know it is the accepted story, but Martyn’s disappearance after ‘94 was more complicated than saying it was for failing in Sydney makes it seem.
Part of the problem was that he unbalanced the side in the first place. Deano was a no.3, Martyn wasn’t. Steve Waugh pushed up against the West Indies, but mostly failed: hence Marto was dropped for Langer in the famous Adelaide test, though he played in Perth (Taylor was missing), and once in New Zealand (Mark Waugh was dropped).
Martyn toured England in ‘93, but despite scoring heavily in the first class games, the emergence of Slater and Hayden allowed Boon to take the no.3 slot, and meant Marto was biding his time. Essentially waiting for Border to retire (in much the same way he was later waiting for M.Waugh).
He didn’t play in the NZ tests, but S.Waugh injured his hamstring, which is why he played in Melbourne and Sydney, with limited success. S.Waugh was fit for Adelaide and practically won the match with both bat and ball.
Martyn’s dropping, such as it was, came later, and was based as much on Shield form and circumstance. The small (15 player) joint One Day/Test squad for tour of South Africa included Dean Jones, which meant Martyn stayed home. By the time the Pakistan squad (sans Border) was picked, it has become impossible not to pick Bevan (who then did quite well).
Martyn obviously didn’t score enough runs, either in the test side, or out (though he captained Australia A in 94-95 if I recall), but it wasn’t really down to Sydney ‘94. If anything, he was unlucky to be playing in Sydney, and copped the blame for the failure of those around him. You could argue the same thing happened after the Ashes in 2005.
Martyn’s batting was a bit too self-effacing to be truly memorable. Perhaps he needed a worse team around him… perhaps not.
December 12th, 2006 at 6.21 am
My favourite Aussie batsmen of the past few years…at times he made even Mark Waugh look ordinary. When India toured Australia in ‘03 he struggled against Kumble and I thought he would be a sitting duck in SL & India but he proved everyone wrong by exhibiting some of the best batting against spin bowling. Wonderful player.
Comments
