Defreitas a Victim of His Time He Sacrificed Pace to Eke Out His County Career, but He Should Have Been a Test Match-Winner
Summary
PHILLIP DeFREITAS, the only survivor (in playing terms, that is) of the last England Ashes winning team, announced this week that the forthcoming season would be his last. DeFreitas was only a baby- faced 20-year-old when the Ashes were retained in Melbourne in 1986- 87, but he pulled his weight with five wickets and a breezy 40 during the victory in the first Test in Brisbane. Although his international career - 140 wickets in 44 Tests - did not really do justice to that early promise, it is a career that should be celebrated.
This will be his 21st season in the first-class game, which is reason enough in itself to raise a glass. But he is also one of only two current players (the other is Martin Bicknell) to have taken more than 1,000 first-class wickets, and he is the only one to do the 10,000 runs and 1,000 wickets double. There will not be many of his kind to follow - especially if bowlers of future generations have such low aspirations as English cricket's administrators (see opposite).See the full content of this document
Extract
Defreitas a Victim of His Time He Sacrificed Pace to Eke Out His County Career, but He Should Have Been a Test Match-Winner
Andrew Caddick is closest to the milestone with 953 wickets. Robert Croft has 839, Ian Salisbury 773, Darren Gough 757 and Dominic Cork 760. All these bowlers, though, began...
See the full content of this document