Damien Martyn: The Man for the Moments

(Karthik Narayan)

Elasticity was found in inanimate things in the late 20th Century, but amongst humans, the elastic Damien Martyn was born on 21st October 1971 at Darwin. He is so elastic in the field, stretching every limb to its edge and maybe even further.

Martyn came into the scene in 1992-93, when he got a hitchhike from Dean Jones, now a famous commentator, at his expense though! The lean patch and age of Dean Jones helped Martyn get a break into a team where one has to fight for a place in the side and further survival!

While one majestic square drive from the bat of Ian Bradshaw has been talked about so highly, the very same square drive was nearly the Waterloo for this simple yet stylish in his own way - right-handed batsman. In the 2nd test at Sydney in 1993-94 against the Proteas, he made that very extravagant drive…the drive drove him back to the drawing room. He was ousted from the team immediately. The Aussies don’t like losing, and they lost that test by a narrow margin of 5 runs! Chasing just 117 runs for an important test win, the Aussies collapsed just 7 runs short of victory. Damien would never have been so crossed with himself. Timid McGrath could not last that final frontier of 7 runs and gone, the Aussies had lost at home!

Sporting an average in the high Forties in tests, this technically savvy super star boasts of 13 hundreds in 67 tests till date, with 161 against the Sri Lankans on the spinner friendly pitch at Kandy in 2003-04, which is something really commendable. He helped Australia get a stranglehold on the game, and shave the Lions’ beards in their own Den!

Talking about Martyn’s ODI stints, he was never the quickest scorer to begin with, but slowly he learnt what it takes to be a ODI player, and he learnt it quick. He was not in the team for most of his early twenties, when he was the freshest face in the Aussie team. Well he is still no less fresh than what he was, but after missing 4 years of his cricketing career, he clawed on to an opportunity against India in 1998 with all the guts to make a Golden Comeback of sorts.

Getting back into a team where every performance counts and every run counts is the toughest for any player, however great his records may be. Damien Martyn knew how hard it was to get a test place in this Aussie team that does not take shirkers! Finally after 5 years of exile in Test Cricket, he was finally chosen to play for the series in New Zealand. He managed to wedge a decent 78 at Wellington and then an 89* at Hamilton. At that time, that was his highest score in Test matches.
His first hundred in tests came against England at Birmingham in the Ashes 2001.

Soon after this, his test place was in no danger as he started to score runs at free will. Splendid strokes matched one another from his willow, and soon he was back in business as one of Australia’s best middle order batsman in contemporary times.
His first world cup was the 1999 World Cup in England; where he could not impress anyone with just the two matches that he played. He scored 18 against the Pakistani steamrollers before being bowled, and 11 against SA both at Leeds. I doubt if that’s a record for a person having played all his matches at the same location in a single world cup.

But as World Cup 2003 came, he started off with a duck in his first match against Pakistan again, but soon found his rhythm with good scores in that series, amassing runs when Australia needed them most. Four fifties at quick scoring rates helped Australia redeem their position in this game as the World Champions. He was injured during the course of this world cup and missed out on the Semi Final versus Sri Lanka, but managed to mesmerize in his own way in that all-important Final against the Indian team. After his captain showed the way with a classy and all aggressive brilliant hundred, Martyn came into the party with a super 88* at Johannesburg.
Ever since his comeback in the team in both tests and ODIs, he has been pure ecstasy to watch whether with the bat or in the field.

A typically aussie adding flavor to the table, his best year was 2004, when he went to Sri Lanka and India (instrumental in Australia winning in India after 35 years). He scored 6 centuries in that one year and was a force to reckon with.

A martin is a bird that builds its nest the hard way, mostly where humans live, in buildings. Damien Richard Martyn is like a bird, he flies every now and then for his great catches and he also builds his innings with the bat slowly. 67 Tests, 14 years, 4406 runs at 46.37, plus 208 ODI’s – soldier, you have done well! Its true that your services to this great game and this great team would most certainly be missed, but decisions are to be made. I personally wish you well in the future aspects of your life.