Damien William Fleming (born 24 April 1970) is an Australian cricket commentator and former
cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
er who played for the
Australian national cricket team
The Australia men's national cricket team represents Australia in men's international cricket. As the joint oldest team in Test cricket history, playing in the first ever Test match in 1877, the team also plays One-Day International (ODI) an ...
and domestic cricket for
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seychelle ...
. He played in 20
Tests
Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to:
* Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities
Arts and entertainment
* ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film
* ''Test'' (2014 film), ...
and 88
ODIs from 1994 to 2001 and was part of the all-conquering Australian teams under
Steve Waugh
Stephen Rodger Waugh (born 2 June 1965) is an Australian former international cricketer and twin brother of cricketer Mark Waugh. A right-handed batsman, he was also a medium-pace bowler. As Australian captain from 1997 to 2004, he led Australi ...
and
Mark Taylor. In recent years Fleming has spent time refining his theory of Bowlology, a set of scientific coaching principles to help developing bowlers.
Injury problems shortened his career, with the side-on bowling action that generated his swing, also putting more strain on his body.
International career
Fleming's 20
Tests
Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to:
* Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities
Arts and entertainment
* ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film
* ''Test'' (2014 film), ...
between 1994–95 and 2000–01 returned 75 wickets at an average of 25.89 with best figures of 5/30. He is one of only three men (along with
Maurice Allom
Maurice James Carrick Allom (23 March 1906 – 8 April 1995) was an English amateur cricketer who played in five Tests from 1930 to 1931.
Life and career
Allom attended Wellington College, Berkshire, before going up to Trinity College, Cambridg ...
and
Peter Petherick
Peter James Petherick (25 September 1942 – 7 June 2015) was a New Zealand cricketer who represented New Zealand in six Test cricket matches between October 1976 and March 1977 as an off-spinner. He is one of two New Zealand bowlers to achieve ...
) to have taken a
hat-trick
A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three.
Origin
The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...
on Test debut. Fleming's hat-trick was taken against Pakistan at Rawalpindi where he claimed Australia's nemesis
Salim Malik in the second innings as his third wicket.
His Test match record is impressive, with the 1999–2000 season Fleming's finest hour: he claimed 31 wickets in six Tests against Pakistan and India. His career best figures of 5/31 came against India at Adelaide in December 1999, where if not for Shane Warne spilling up a difficult slips catch, Fleming would have claimed a second hat-trick.
Fleming's ODI record is equally impressive, representing his country 88 times including two
World Cup
A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...
finals and taking 134 wickets at an average of 25.38. He was seen by many to be a one-day specialist, especially in the latter overs when his fine economy rate kept runs down. Fleming was the last-over specialist in both the
1996
File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...
and
1999
File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...
World Cup Semi-Finals. In 1996 at Mohali with the West Indies needing six runs to win off five balls, Fleming bowled Courtney Walsh for victory. In 1999 at
Edgbaston
Edgbaston () is an affluent suburban area of central Birmingham, England, historically in Warwickshire, and curved around the southwest of the city centre.
In the 19th century, the area was under the control of the Gough-Calthorpe family an ...
, with South Africa requiring one run with four balls remaining, it took an
Allan Donald
Allan Anthony Donald (born 20 October 1966) is a South African former cricketer who is also the current bowling coach of Bangladesh national cricket team. Often nicknamed 'White Lightning' due to his lightning quick bowling, he is considered ...
brain-fade to send Australia into the final.
Domestic career
He played 78 First Class Matches for
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seychelle ...
taking 258 wickets. He took 6/37 on First Class debut vs
Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...
in 1989/90.
Fleming was named in the
South Melbourne Cricket Club
The Casey-South Melbourne Cricket Club is a cricket club located in the outer south-eastern Melbourne suburb of Cranbourne East, which plays in the Victorian Premier Cricket competition. Founded in 1862 as South Melbourne, it has produced nine Aust ...
’s team of the 20th century, alongside such greats as
Bill Woodfull
William Maldon Woodfull (22 August 1897 – 11 August 1965) was an Australian cricketer of the 1920s and 1930s. He captained both Victoria and Australia, and was best known for his dignified and moral conduct during the tumultuous bodyline ...
,
Keith Miller
Keith Ross Miller (28 November 1919 – 11 October 2004) was an Australian Test cricketer and a Royal Australian Air Force pilot during World War II. Miller is widely regarded as Australia's greatest ever all-rounder. His ability, irreverent m ...
and
Clarrie Grimmett
Clarence Victor "Clarrie" Grimmett (25 December 1891 – 2 May 1980) was a New Zealand-born Australian cricketer. He is thought by many to be one of the finest early spin bowlers, and usually credited as the developer of the flipper.
Early l ...
.
Post-retirement
Following his retirement from all cricket in 2003 he was briefly appointed head coach at the
Australian Cricket Academy
The Australian Cricket Academy was founded in 1987 as a joint initiative of the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) and the Australian Cricket Board (ACB). It was initially located at Henley Beach in Adelaide before moving to the Allan Border Fie ...
.
Like many of his counterparts, Fleming became a cricket commentator for both internationals and domestic
Sheffield Shield
The Sheffield Shield (currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Marsh Sheffield Shield) is the domestic first-class cricket competition of Australia. The tournament is contested between teams from the six states of Australia. Sheffield Shi ...
matches. He has been heard on
Triple M Melbourne
Triple M Melbourne is a radio station broadcasting in Melbourne, Victoria. Its target demographic is the 18-54 age group. Triple M Melbourne is part of Southern Cross Austereo's Triple M Network and broadcasts on the 105.1 MHz frequency.
Th ...
and
SEN 1116
1116 SEN (call sign 3AK) is an Australian radio station in Victoria. Owned and operated by Pacific Star Network, it broadcasts a sports radio format from Lower Plenty to Greater Melbourne. First broadcast on 29 November 1931 as 3AK, the st ...
radio, and is a specialist cricket commentator for
Seven Network
The Seven Network (commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is a major Australian commercial free-to-air Television broadcasting in Australia, television network. It is owned by Seven West Media, Seven West Media Limited, and is one of ...
having previously worked for
ABC Radio Grandstand
ABC Sport, formerly ABC Radio Grandstand, is a live radio sports focused commentary and talk-back program which runs on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) local radio network across Australia and on one digital-only station.
History
Fr ...
,
Channel 10 and
Fox Sports
Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world.
The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the Fo ...
.
Fleming, a keen
Hawthorn
Hawthorn or Hawthorns may refer to:
Plants
* '' Crataegus'' (hawthorn), a large genus of shrubs and trees in the family Rosaceae
* ''Rhaphiolepis'' (hawthorn), a genus of about 15 species of evergreen shrubs and small trees in the family Rosace ...
fan, appeared on ''Before the Bounce'' in 2009 with
Jason Dunstall
Jason Hadfield Dunstall (born 14 August 1964) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Hawthorn Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL).
Dunstall is arguably the greatest Australian rules footballer to come from ...
and
Danny Frawley
Daniel Patrick Frawley (8 September 1963 – 9 September 2019) was an Australian rules football player, coach, administrator, commentator and media personality. He played 240 games for the St Kilda Football Club in the Victorian Football League ...
, a weekly
Australian football
Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modifie ...
program broadcast on
Foxtel
Foxtel is an Australian pay television company—operating in cable television, direct broadcast satellite television, and IPTV streaming services. It was formed in April 2018, superseding an earlier company from 1995. The service was establi ...
, before becoming a regular on the show's successor ''After the Bounce''. Recognising his own capacity for sporting insights (developed through deep contemplation of Bowlology theory) the show's producers gave Fleming a role akin to 'editor at large' in his segment ''Turn It Up''. In this segment, Fleming cast a critical eye over the
AFL
AFL may refer to:
Sports
* American Football League (AFL), a name shared by several separate and unrelated professional American football leagues:
** American Football League (1926) (a.k.a. "AFL I"), first rival of the National Football Leagu ...
and society in general, raising the questionable and confronting issues that others thought inappropriate. He also ran a part of the show featuring a broken chocolate wheel. No longer in his role on After The Bounce. The chocolate wheel was never seen again.
Fleming began to make appearances during the fourth season (2009) of ''
Thank God You're Here
''Thank God You're Here'' is an Australian television improvised comedy program created by Working Dog Productions, which premiered on Network Ten on 5 April 2006, and aired for the first three seasons and on Seven for the fourth season.
Each ...
'' where he parodied the prevalence of sportspersons (notably cricketers) endorsing anything in the Australian media.
In May 2018, it was announced that Fleming would join the
Seven Network
The Seven Network (commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is a major Australian commercial free-to-air Television broadcasting in Australia, television network. It is owned by Seven West Media, Seven West Media Limited, and is one of ...
's cricket commentary team, after the network won the Cricket Australia broadcast rights from the 2018/19 season. In August 2018 it was announced that he would also join the SEN 1116 radio commentary team.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fleming, Damien
1970 births
Living people
Australia Test cricketers
Test cricket hat-trick takers
Australia One Day International cricketers
Australian expatriate sportspeople in England
Cricketers at the 1996 Cricket World Cup
Cricketers at the 1999 Cricket World Cup
Australian cricket coaches
Australian cricket commentators
South Australia cricketers
Victoria cricketers
Warwickshire cricketers
Cricketers at the 1998 Commonwealth Games
Commonwealth Games silver medallists for Australia
Australian cricketers
Sportsmen from Western Australia
Cricketers from Perth, Western Australia
Commonwealth Games medallists in cricket