Stephen Fleming: The Messiah of New Zealand Cricket

- Karthik Narayan

New Zealand cricket has always been a bowl of surprises for the universal audience, springing up one every now and then, and Stephen Fleming was the surprise unleashed one fine morning in the summer of 1993-94.

When Stephen missed his century on debut against the Indians at Hamilton in 1993-94, he had every reason to feel bad about it. Not simply because it would have been great to get a century on Debut, but the fact is, his First ton in tests took him four long years to arrive. Finally the question was answered, as Fleming had conquered a personal quest that had eluded him for so many years.

A score of 129 against England at Auckland was a huge sigh of relief for Fleming. If Test hundreds at the end of the career are the judge of a good batsman, then Fleming will not figure in that prominent list. However, one has to consider that he has the potential to much more than what he has shown so far. Few other centuries have come, including a mega show of 274* in the first test against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka in 2003, which was a tremendous effort, keeping in mind that much has been written about Sri Lankan spin tracks, and the New Zealand players not being good players of spin.

Fleming is New Zealand’s most capped player in tests with 85 tests, surpassing Martin Crowe recently when New Zealand toured Bangladesh on Oct 26, 2004. This 31 year old also has become the highest run aggregator for New Zealand when he crossed Martin Crowe on that very day, that ever-mercurial captain of the 1990s. Fleming is in the traditional mould, with the hands upright, the knees bent, and the follow through of a batsman in the traditional mould. He would not be an exciting batsman in the mould of a Richards, or Gilchrist, he is more a “method player”, more technically equipped rather than score runs at a Free Willy rate.

Potentially good enough for a lot more runs, he has been guilty of frittering away the good starts to his innings. His scores average around 38 runs every innings, which does not quite reflect the true story. He is capable of much more than that! Only recently he has made those fine tuning to his batting and made sure he converts his starts into much more than a mere fifty. He has the finest of on drives, a stroke one can associate with Fleming purely for the richness with which he executes that shot.

Amongst contemporary Cricket captains, one of the finest and vastly experienced skippers would be this Kiwi that has flown all around the world with his talented team. He has led New Zealand in 63 tests till date, which puts him as the most capped captain amongst present day teams!

Fleming has always been a captain with a keen mind to learn, improvising his unique field placements, the ability to make thing happen for New Zealand. He rings in those changes every now and then, and he has built his ideologies on Martin Crowe, a super innovator of the 1990s, when New Zealand cricket was just taking wing.

This Christchurch born left-hander’s cricketing brain ticks all 24 X 7, and he always rings in those changes in the bowling at the right time and he is an expert in marshalling his resources. Even though New Zealand does not boast of the super heroes of cricket, there are the useful characters of cricket such as Astle, Harris, Cairns and Vettori and Fleming has made maximum use of these bits and pieces players. Fleming has always led from the front, with his astute captaincy and his orthodox batting when the chips are down making him a very intelligent captain.

His One Day International record is also pretty good, considering his low key in the batting line up at Number Five – he has 6 centuries and a handful of fifties (37) in 225 ODIs at an average of 32.30. He has the unique distinction of leading New Zealand for the most number of Tests and ODIs, something which one cannot associate with contemporary captains.

One incident that stands out in Fleming’s captaincy and astute thinking was when New Zealand met Australia in an ODI on Jan 29, 2002 at MCG. Fleming noticed that there were 3 fielders outside the 30 yards ring during the first fifteen overs during the match, when Fleming himself was batting; and he pointed it out to the umpires, and soon that was rectified. That Fleming was reprimanded 40% of his match fee later was totally unfair on him, but it took that special thinking and keenness of mind at that time and that proves why he has been New Zealand’s best captain till date!

The New Zealand selectors have always held their faith on Fleming. Though at one stage, Fleming’s ODI batting was appalling, and pretty ordinary, they placed enough faith and retained him as skipper and he has paid rich dividends. He has been in charge of a team not known for super stars, yet under the guise of underdogs can choke even the top teams with big names with their great high flying cricket. Who would forget their World Cup exploits in the 1996 and 1999 editions, when New Zealand gave every team the leather chase!

If there’s a Hall of Fame for the great players of New Zealand cricket, this man would surely figure into the thick of things, as he has been the finest messiah for New Zealand cricket over these 10 years of cricket for New Zealand.

I wish this King Kiwi all the best ahead of a bright future, where we are sure to see more of this man’s skills with the bat and as he dons that Black thinking cap as Skipper.