Ian Harvey, an Australian. I saw him bowl once, all floppy haired and medium paced, getting smashed about by Stephen Fleming, a New Zealander. It was in the Tsunami fundraiser that substituted for the scheduled ODI against Sri Lanka, in January 2005.
Genius
What a strange game that was. New Zealand came up against a team of superstars, Craig Spearman, an erstwhile New Zealander not least among them, and triumphed so emphatically we were in the Lancaster Hotel before you could say Warnakulasuriya Patabendige Ushantha Joseph Chaminda Vaas. The strangest occurance of all was that Stephen Fleming - who I once accosted on Coventry Street in London, congratulating him on his recent hundred in the West Indies, this being at a time when he couldn't prostitute himself for a hundred, and he seemed genuinely shocked yet pleased with the acknowledgement - scored a million off seven deliveries, or something like that.
Considering Murali, a Sri Lankan bowler, went for 20 an over in this match, the fact that Mr Fleming's innings seems the stranger incident requires some qualification. In Mr Murali's defence, I suspect his heart was not really in his bowling that day. Yet the fact that Mr Fleming managed to be seeing the ball as if it was a spongey football being tossed by a crippled arm onto a glass floor was still an extraordinary sight. He hit 9 sixes and 10 fours off an array of quality bowlers and never played another innings like it. Which is what made it all so very, very strange.
Mind you his hundred in the rain affected, Duckworth-Lewis assisted fiasco against South Africa during the 2003 World Cup was the best ODI innings I have seen from a New Zealander. (Which pretty much makes it the best ODI innings I have seen.)
That aside, I always had to wonder what his head-space was like throughout his career for things to happen like that. It was almost as if he was the most gifted genius in the world struggling to cope with his talent, only able to break free because the result didn't matter. This is a very common trait among New Zealand sportspeople.
Pioneer
Ian Harvey went for 23 off 2 overs that day, and was out for a duck (lbw Mills). A rather inauspicious match for the man apparently appellated Freak. There are many reasons a gentleman may be called Freak, and it is outside the remit of this forum to list them, but I doubt Freak's heart was in the game either. Who could blame him.
After all, his ODI career for Australia was over and he was never going to play a test, which brings me to the crux of today's interest in Ian Harvey. He never played a test after 73 ODIs. Oh sure, there are plenty of guys who have played the short form without making the step up. But 73 matches? Blimey.
My in-depth research has revealed that he has the record for this type of record. Among proper cricketing nations, nobody has played so many times for his country without playing a Test.
That makes him a pioneer of sorts. He was the trail blazer of the new type of cricketer, of which Australia is beginning to produce in abundance and I suspect will become more prevalent in this short-form dominated age.
James Hopes, one assumes, will take this particular record from Mr Harvey, for I cannot see him playing a Test Match, and there will be others. We seem to have a peculiar type of cricket specific serendipity arising: fellows growing up wanting to play Test Match cricket but making fame and fortune from the skills they have acquired, without actually playing a Test.
It bothers me that gentlemen who are not the finest exponents of the pure game can now become superstars of an adulterated version. We have entered a philosophical jungle.
Genius
What a strange game that was. New Zealand came up against a team of superstars, Craig Spearman, an erstwhile New Zealander not least among them, and triumphed so emphatically we were in the Lancaster Hotel before you could say Warnakulasuriya Patabendige Ushantha Joseph Chaminda Vaas. The strangest occurance of all was that Stephen Fleming - who I once accosted on Coventry Street in London, congratulating him on his recent hundred in the West Indies, this being at a time when he couldn't prostitute himself for a hundred, and he seemed genuinely shocked yet pleased with the acknowledgement - scored a million off seven deliveries, or something like that.
Considering Murali, a Sri Lankan bowler, went for 20 an over in this match, the fact that Mr Fleming's innings seems the stranger incident requires some qualification. In Mr Murali's defence, I suspect his heart was not really in his bowling that day. Yet the fact that Mr Fleming managed to be seeing the ball as if it was a spongey football being tossed by a crippled arm onto a glass floor was still an extraordinary sight. He hit 9 sixes and 10 fours off an array of quality bowlers and never played another innings like it. Which is what made it all so very, very strange.
Mind you his hundred in the rain affected, Duckworth-Lewis assisted fiasco against South Africa during the 2003 World Cup was the best ODI innings I have seen from a New Zealander. (Which pretty much makes it the best ODI innings I have seen.)
That aside, I always had to wonder what his head-space was like throughout his career for things to happen like that. It was almost as if he was the most gifted genius in the world struggling to cope with his talent, only able to break free because the result didn't matter. This is a very common trait among New Zealand sportspeople.
Pioneer
Ian Harvey went for 23 off 2 overs that day, and was out for a duck (lbw Mills). A rather inauspicious match for the man apparently appellated Freak. There are many reasons a gentleman may be called Freak, and it is outside the remit of this forum to list them, but I doubt Freak's heart was in the game either. Who could blame him.
After all, his ODI career for Australia was over and he was never going to play a test, which brings me to the crux of today's interest in Ian Harvey. He never played a test after 73 ODIs. Oh sure, there are plenty of guys who have played the short form without making the step up. But 73 matches? Blimey.
My in-depth research has revealed that he has the record for this type of record. Among proper cricketing nations, nobody has played so many times for his country without playing a Test.
That makes him a pioneer of sorts. He was the trail blazer of the new type of cricketer, of which Australia is beginning to produce in abundance and I suspect will become more prevalent in this short-form dominated age.
James Hopes, one assumes, will take this particular record from Mr Harvey, for I cannot see him playing a Test Match, and there will be others. We seem to have a peculiar type of cricket specific serendipity arising: fellows growing up wanting to play Test Match cricket but making fame and fortune from the skills they have acquired, without actually playing a Test.
It bothers me that gentlemen who are not the finest exponents of the pure game can now become superstars of an adulterated version. We have entered a philosophical jungle.
