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| Australian
Squad
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Damien
Richard Martyn
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| Born: |
21
October 1971, Darwin, Northern Territory |
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| Major
Teams: |
Western
Australia, Leicestershire, Australia |
| Known
As: |
Damien
Martyn |
| Pronounced: |
Damien
Martyn |
| Batting
Style: |
Right
Hand Bat |
| Bowling
Style: |
Right
Arm Medium
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| Test
Debut: |
Australia v West Indies at Brisbane, 1st Test, 1992/93 |
| Latest
Test: |
Australia v England at Melbourne, 4th Test, 2002/03 |
| ODI
Debut: |
Australia v West Indies at Sydney, World Series, 1992/93 |
| Latest
ODI: |
Australia v Sri Lanka at Perth, VB Series, 2002/03 |
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Profile:
A
former member of the Australian Cricket Academy and a previous
Australian under 19 captain, Damien Martyn is an aggressive middle
order batsman. Whilst he is not particularly tall, he is
nevertheless very upright at the crease and is an adventurous
player, whose natural inclination is always to go on the attack
and to punish loose bowling. For an Australian, he is also an
unusually wristy batsman. On the back of a number of impressive
performances for state team Western Australia, a measure of how
well regarded he was as a young batsman came in his elevation to
his country's Test team at the age of twenty-one. It was a taste
of elite level cricket which was to last for a period in excess of
twelve months before his unfortunate dismissal in the closing
stages of the tension-laced Sydney Test against South Africa in
1994-95 spelled the end of his international ambitions for more
than four years.
Having
continued to serve as a key figure in the Warriors' team in the
intervening period (a reality highlighted by a brilliant
Mercantile Mutual Cup campaign in 1997-98 which saw him break the
record for the most runs by a player in a single domestic one-day
season), Martyn won a recall to the national one-day side in 1998.
It was from here that his career was re-ignited. Continued hard
work at his game both physically and mentally led to appearances
during the one-day tours of India, Pakistan and Sharjah, in the
Wills International Cup in Bangladesh, and again at the 1999 World
Cup in England. A further brightening of his position ensued when
he adapted successfully to the task of scoring briskly in the
middle and closing overs of several games in the Carlton and
United Series of 1999-2000; in a six match series against New
Zealand across the Tasman; and a three match battle in South
Africa in April 2000. The New Zealand visit even saw him adapt to
the responsibility of opening, which he did in the best possible
style by carrying his bat to compile a defiant century while
others crumbled around him in the final ODI at Auckland. On the
same tour, the ongoing unavailability through injury of Ricky
Ponting also paved the way for Martyn to reappear in the Test
eleven in for the first time since his fateful Sydney appearance.
In topping his team's averages and twice rescuing Australia from
particularly precarious positions (most notably, with his unbeaten
89 in the Third Test at Hamilton), he showed during that series
that there should now remain few reservations about his status as
one of his nation's top contemporary players.
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