Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Full name | Kenneth Charlie Griffith Benjamin | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | St. John's, Antigua and Barbuda | 8 April 1967|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Batting | Right-handed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bowling | Right-arm fast | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
International information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
National side |
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Test debut | 18 April 1992 v South Africa | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Last Test | 13 February 1998 v England | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
ODI debut | 4 December 1992 v Pakistan | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Last ODI | 17 December 1996 v Pakistan | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Domestic team information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Years | Team | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1988–1999 | Leeward Islands | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1993 | Worcestershire | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1999–2000 | Gauteng | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2000–2001 | Easterns | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Career statistics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Source:CricketArchive,21 October 2010 |
Kenneth Charlie Griffith Benjamin (born 8 April 1967) is a former cricketer from Antigua and Barbuda who played 26 Tests and 26 One Day Internationals for the West Indies. [1]
A right arm fast bowler,Benjamin spent much of his international career bowling alongside Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose. He made his Test debut in their side's first ever Test against South Africa,in 1991–92. He never really made a name for himself until a spell of 6–66 against England in 1993–94 which he followed up with seven wickets in his next Test,finishing the series with 22 wickets.
Benjamin then took 17 wickets in the Windies' three test match away series in 1994 against India. [2] He was also West Indies’top bowler during the six-Test series in England in 1995. His 23 wickets at 22.00 saw him finish ahead of Ambrose,Walsh and Ian Bishop,while his 10-wicket haul in the fifth Test (5/107 &5/69) at Trent Bridge bumped him to 10th in the ICC Rankings.
Benjamin picked up 37 first class wickets at 24.62 in his lone 1993 season at Worcestershire. He later claimed a ten wicket haul of 10 for 150 in Gauteng's win against Border in the final of the 1999/2000 Supersport Series. Benjamin took a sum of 38 wickets at an average of 15.63 in his six first class matches for Guateng. He eventually signed with fellow South African side,Easterns for the subsequent season. [3] [4] [5] [6]
After his playing career came to a close Benjamin took up coaching. He went on to coach the United States at the 2004 ICC Champions Trophy. [7] While playing for Netherfield cricket team(Kendal) in England's Northern Premier League system,Benjamin was also contracted to coach schoolchildren,one of whom,Will Greenwood,went on to play international rugby for England. Greenwood remembers Benjamin's unique approach to keeping his young pupils attentive:
"If you were foolish enough to horse about,he'd bowl at you,coming in off just one yard and fire down the fastest ball you ever faced. He would then walk down the wicket,and,in a lazy West Indian drawl,say,"Don't mess about in my net sessions"." [8]
Michael Vaughan,in his autobiography,gives credit to a "scary" time spent facing Benjamin in the nets,as formative in his development in facing fast bowlers. Aged 14,Vaughan made the first team at Sheffield Collegiate,for whom Benjamin also played. [9]
Joel Garner is a former West Indian cricketer,and a member of the highly regarded late 1970s and early 1980s West Indies cricket teams. Garner is the highest ranked One Day International bowler according to the ICC best-ever bowling ratings,and is 37th in Tests. Garner was a member of the West Indies team that won their second world title in the 1979 Cricket World Cup.
Courtney Andrew Walsh OJ is a former Jamaican cricketer who represented the West Indies from 1984 to 2001,captaining the West Indies in 22 Test matches. He is a fast bowler and considered one of the all-time greats,best known for a remarkable opening bowling partnership along with fellow West Indian Curtly Ambrose for several years. Walsh played 132 Tests and 205 ODIs for the West Indies and took 519 and 227 wickets respectively. He shared 421 Test wickets with Ambrose in 49 matches. He held the record of most Test wickets from 2000,after he broke the record of Kapil Dev. This record was later broken in 2004 by Shane Warne. He was the first bowler to reach 500 wickets in Test cricket. His autobiography is entitled "Heart of the Lion". Walsh was named one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1987. In October 2010,he was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame. He was appointed as the Specialist Bowling Coach of Bangladesh Cricket Team in August 2016.
Glenn Donald McGrath is an Australian former international cricketer whose career spanned 14 years. He was a fast-medium pace bowler and is considered one of the greatest bowlers of all time,and a leading contributor to Australia's domination of world cricket from the mid-1990s to the late 2000s. McGrath was a member of the Australian team that won three consecutive World Cup trophies in a row,winning the 1999 Cricket World Cup,the 2003 Cricket World Cup,and the 2007 Cricket World Cup. In the 2003 final,he took the winning wicket of Zaheer Khan. McGrath was also a member of the team that won the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy.
Wasim AkramHI is a Pakistani cricket commentator,coach,and former cricketer and captain of the Pakistan national cricket team. Akram is regarded as one of the greatest fast bowlers of all time,as well as the greatest left-arm fast bowler in cricket history. He is often revered as The Sultan of Swing. In October 2013,Wasim Akram was the only Pakistani cricketer to be named in an all-time Test World XI to mark the 150th anniversary of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack. As captain,he led Pakistan to the finals of the 1999 Cricket World Cup,where they lost to Australia by 8 wickets.
Malcolm Denzil Marshall was a Barbadian cricketer. Primarily a fast bowler,Marshall is widely regarded as one of the greatest and one of the most accomplished fast bowlers of the modern era in Test cricket. He is often acknowledged as the greatest West Indian fast bowler of all time,and certainly one of the most complete fast bowlers the cricketing world ever saw. His Test bowling average of 20.94 is the best of anyone who has taken 200 or more wickets. He achieved his bowling success despite being,by the standards of other fast bowlers of his time,a short man –he stood at 180 cm,while most of the great quicks have been well above 183 cm and many great West Indian fast bowlers,such as Joel Garner,Curtly Ambrose,and Courtney Walsh,were 197 cm or above. He generated fearsome pace from his bowling action,with a dangerous bouncer. He also statistically went on to become the most successful Test match bowler of the 1980s with 235 wickets with an average of 18.47 within a time period of just five years. Marshall was a part of the West Indies team that reached the 1983 Cricket World Cup Final,but lost to India by 43 runs.
James Michael Anderson is an English international cricketer who plays for the England Test cricket team and Lancashire,and previously played for England's limited overs cricket teams. Anderson is widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time by English cricket fans. He holds the record for most wickets by a pace bowler in Test cricket history,having taken over 650 Test wickets.
Jerome Everton Taylor is a Jamaican cricketer who has played as a fast bowler for the West Indies. Taylor eventually picked up 100 wickets for the Windies in both tests and odis. During 2017 he reversed an initial decision to retire from international cricket. Taylor has also featured for Jamaica,English sides Somerset,Leicestershire and Sussex,CPL teams St Lucia Zouks and Jamaica Tallawahs and IPL sides Pune Warriors and Mumbai Indians in his cricketing career. Taylor was a member of the West Indies team that won the 2016 T20 World Cup. He is the only bowler to have ever taken a hat-trick in a Champions Trophy match,which he did in the 2006 tournament against Australia,and that was the first hat-trick taken by a West Indian bowler in the ODI format.
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Saeed Ajmal SI is a Pakistani cricket coach and former cricketer,who played all forms of the game. He is a right-arm off-spin bowler who bats right handed. At domestic level in Pakistan he represented Faisalabad,with whom he won the 2005 ABN-AMRO Twenty-20 Cup;Khan Research Laboratories;and Islamabad. Ajmal made his One Day International debut for Pakistan in July 2008 at the age of 30,and a year later played his first Test. In 2009,he was reported for having a suspect bowling action,but after being cleared he helped Pakistan win the 2009 ICC World Twenty20. Ajmal played for Worcestershire as an overseas player in English domestic cricket in 2011. From November 2011 to December 2014,Ajmal was ranked by the International Cricket Council as the number one bowler in ODIs. He reached the same ranking in T20Is between October and December 2012,while his highest Test ranking was second between January and July of the same year. He is one of four Test bowlers that made their debut after the age of thirty to take more than 100 test wickets,along with Clarrie Grimmett,Dilip Doshi and Ryan Harris.
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