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 st ...

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) a ...

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

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and 88

ODI ODI may refer to: * Object Design, Incorporated, a defunct database software company * One Day International, cricket match * Open Data Institute, a UK not-for-profit company promoting open data * Open Data-Link Interface, an implementation of ...

s 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 Austral ...

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

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 and Peter Petherick) 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 w ...

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

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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 shoot ...

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 ...

, 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

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 t ...

in 1989/90. Fleming was named in the South Melbourne Cricket Club’s team of the 20th century, alongside such greats as Bill Woodfull,

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 Fi ...

. 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 Sh ...

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 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 F ...

. Fleming, a keen

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fan, appeared on ''Before the Bounce'' in 2009 with Jason Dunstall 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

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program broadcast on

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, 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

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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

'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