Test career
Elliott was called up to the Australian national team in the 1996–97 season,making his Test debut against the West Indies in November 1996. Unfortunately for Elliott,in just his second Test match he was injured in a mid-pitch collision with teammate Mark Waugh,resulting in the need for knee surgery.
Elliott returned for the 1996–97 tour of South Africa. He retained his place for the 1997 tour of England,scoring two centuries in the Ashes series,including a career-best 199. He also made his One Day International debut in 1997 in the Texaco Trophy,but scored 1,making it his only appearance in a limited overs international. Elliott was named one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year for 1998,although this wasn't enough for him to hold down a regular spot in the Australian side,and due to inconsistent performances after the Ashes series he slipped out of the national team in 1999. Steve Waugh,in his autobiography,described Elliott as "technically gifted but temperamentally flawed" and "prone to serious bouts of self-doubt and a tendency to let injuries rule his thought processes." Waugh stated that "[Elliott] would have been a perfect candidate...[for] a sports psychologist." [1]
Elliott continued to perform at domestic level for Victoria and on the English county scene,and in the 2003–04 season scored a remarkable 1381 runs in the Pura Cup,overtaking Graham Yallop's previous record (which was succeeded the very next year in 2004–05 by Michael Bevan). Rewarded with the Pura Cup Player of the Year award and a new Cricket Australia contract,he was recalled to the national team for the first time in five years. However,he played in just one unsuccessful Test against Sri Lanka,where he batted at number 3 in place of Ricky Ponting (who was absent because of a family bereavement);batting outside his normal position,Elliott scored just 0 and 1.
This performance dented hopes of a resurgence in his international career greatly. In addition to this,he also had a below-par season in the subsequent 2004–05 domestic season for Victoria,averaging in the mid-30s.
Stephen Rodger Waugh is an Australian former international cricketer and twin brother of cricketer Mark Waugh. A right-handed batsman and a medium-pace bowler, Waugh is considered one of the greatest cricketers of all time. Waugh was a part of the Australian team that won their first world title during the 1987 Cricket World Cup. As Australian captain from 1997 to 2004, he led Australia to fifteen of their record sixteen consecutive Test wins, and to victory in the 1999 Cricket World Cup. Waugh is considered the most successful Test captain in history with 41 victories and a winning ratio of 72%.
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) and Twenty20 International (T20I) cricket, participating in both the first ODI, against England in the 1970–71 season and the first T20I, against New Zealand in the 2004–05 season, winning both games. The team draws its players from teams playing in the Australian domestic competitions – the Sheffield Shield, the Australian domestic limited-overs cricket tournament and the Big Bash League. Australia are the current ICC World Test Championship and ICC Cricket World Cup champions. They are regarded as most successful cricket teams in the history of Cricket.
Jason Neil Gillespie is an Australian cricket coach and former cricketer who played all three formats of the game. A right-arm fast bowler, he was also a competent lower-order batsman whose unbeaten 201 in his last Test match is the highest score by a night-watchman in international cricket. He was a part of the Australian squad which won the 2003 Cricket World Cup.
Ricky Thomas Ponting is an Australian cricket coach, commentator, and former cricketer. Widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen of all time, Ponting was captain of the Australian national team between 2004 and 2011 in Test cricket and 2002 and 2011 in One Day Internationals (ODIs) and is the most successful captain in international cricket history, with 220 victories in 324 matches with a winning rate of 67.91%. He stands third in the list of cricketers by number of international centuries scored. He holds the record for winning most ICC tournaments as a captain in Men's Cricket. Under his Captaincy Australia won the 2003 and 2007 Cricket World Cups and 2006 and 2009 Champions Trophies. He was also a member of the Australian team that won the 1999 Cricket World Cup.
Damien Richard Martyn is an Australian cricket commentator and former cricketer, who played Tests and ODIs. He played for the national team sporadically in 1992–1994 before becoming a regular ODI player from 1999 to 2000 and a regular Test player in 2000 until his retirement in late 2006. He was primarily a right-handed middle-order batsman with a 'classical' technique, known in particular for his elegant strokemaking square of the wicket on the off-side and through the covers. Martyn was a member of the Australian team that won two consecutive world titles in a row: the 1999 Cricket World Cup, the 2003 Cricket World Cup, as well as being a member of the team that won the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy.
Simon Matthew Katich is an Australian cricket coach and former cricketer. He captained New South Wales and also, until the end of the 2007 season, Derbyshire County Cricket Club. Katich also played for Lancashire, represented his birth state of Western Australia and played in Indian Premier League for Kings XI Punjab. Katich was also a member of the Australian team that won the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy.
Herschelle Herman Gibbs is a South African cricket coach and former cricketer, who played all formats of the game for fourteen years. A right-handed batsman,who mostly opened the batting, Gibbs became the first player to hit six consecutive sixes in one over in One Day International (ODI) cricket, doing so against the Netherlands in the 2007 Cricket World Cup.
Darren Scott Lehmann is an Australian cricket coach and former cricketer who coached the Australian national team. Lehmann made his ODI debut in 1996 and Test debut in 1998. He was on the fringes of national selection for the entirety of the 1990s, and only became a regular in the ODI team in 2001 and Test team in late 2002, before being dropped in early 2005. Primarily an aggressive left-handed batsman, Lehmann was also a part-time left arm orthodox bowler, and gained renown for his disregard for physical fitness and modern dietary regimes. He announced his retirement from first-class cricket in November 2007. Lehmann was a member of the Australian team that won the 1999 Cricket World Cup and the 2003 Cricket World Cup, where in the 1999 final, he scored the winning boundary, and took the winning catch in the 2003 final.
Matthew James Hoggard, is a former English cricketer, who played international cricket for England cricket team from 2000 to 2008, playing both Test cricket and One Day Internationals. The 6' 2" Hoggard was a right arm fast-medium bowler and right-handed batsman.
William Lloyd Murdoch was an Australian cricketer who captained the Australian national side in 16 Test matches between 1880 and 1890. This included four tours of England, one of which, in 1882, gave rise to The Ashes. In 2019 Murdoch was inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame.
George Henry Stevens Trott was an Australian cricketer who played 24 Test matches as an all-rounder between 1888 and 1898. Although Trott was a versatile batsman, spin bowler and outstanding fielder, "it is as a captain that he is best remembered, an understanding judge of human nature". After a period of some instability and ill discipline in Australian cricket, he was the first in a succession of assertive Australian captains that included Joe Darling, Monty Noble and Clem Hill, who restored the prestige of the Test team. Respected by teammates and opponents alike for his cricketing judgement, Trott was quick to pick up a weakness in opponents. A right-handed batsman, he was known for his sound defence and vigorous hitting. His slow leg-spin bowling was often able to deceive batsmen through subtle variations of pace and flight, but allowed opposition batsmen to score quickly.
Carl Llewelyn Hooper is a former Guyanese cricketer who captained the West Indies in Tests and ODIs. An all-rounder, he was a right-handed batsman and off-spin bowler, who came to prominence in the late 1980s in a side that included such players as Gordon Greenidge, Desmond Haynes, Malcolm Marshall and Courtney Walsh and represented the West Indies over a 16-year international career.
Bradley John Hodge is an Australian cricket coach and former cricketer. He was a right-handed batsman who batted in the middle order, as well as a part-time right-arm off-spin bowler. Hodge was a member of the Australian team that won the 2007 Cricket World Cup.
James Patrick Maher is an Australian former cricketer, who played One Day Internationals. He is "an attractive left-handed batsman with a clumping cover-drive". He was a part of the Australian squad which won the 2003 Cricket World Cup.
The 1997 cricket season was the 98th in which the County Championship has been an official competition. The season centred on the six-Test Ashes series against Australia. England won the first, at Edgbaston, by the decisive margin of nine wickets, and the rain-affected second Test at Lord's was drawn, but any English optimism was short-lived. Australia won the next three games by huge margins to secure the series and retain The Ashes, and England's three-day victory in the final game at The Oval was little more than a consolation prize. It was the 68th test series between the two sides with Australia finally winning 3-2 The three-match ODI series which preceded the Tests produced a statistical curiosity, with England winning each match by an identical margin, six wickets.
Shaun Edward Marsh is an Australian cricketer who previously played for the Western Australia cricket team in Australian domestic cricket and has represented Australia in all three formats. Nicknamed SOS, he is a left-handed top-order batsman.
Cricket is the most popular summer sport in Australia at international, domestic and local levels. It is regarded as the national summer sport, and widely played across the country, especially from the months of September to April. The peak administrative body for both professional and amateur cricket is Cricket Australia. The 2017–18 National Cricket Census showed 1,558,821 Australians engaged in cricket competitions or programs – an increase of 9% from the previous year. 30% of cricket's participants are now female, and 6 in every 10 new participants are female, one of the highest year-on-year participation growth figures. In terms of attendance figures, more than 2.3 million people attended the cricket during the 2017–18 summer, surpassing the record of 1.8 million set in 2016–17.
Mohammad Younis Khan PP SI is a Pakistani professional cricket coach and former cricketer and captain of the Pakistan national cricket team in all three formats of the game, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest middle-order batsmen in Test cricket. Khan is the only Test cricketer in the history of the game to score a century in all 11 countries that have hosted Test matches. Under his Captaincy Pakistan won the 2009 World Twenty20.
Marcus Sinclair Harris is an Australian cricketer who has represented Australia in Test cricket. A left-handed opening batter, Harris plays for Victoria and Leicestershire in domestic cricket. He made his Test debut for the Australia national cricket team in December 2018 against India. He was a member of the Australian team that won the 2023 ICC World Test Championship final.
Marnus Labuschagne is an Australian professional international cricketer who plays domestically for Queensland, Glamorgan in county cricket and for Brisbane Heat in the Big Bash League. Labuschagne has been ranked as high as no.1 in the ICC Test batting rankings, and is considered as one of the best Test batsmen in the world. Labuschagne was a member of the Australian team that won the 2023 ICC World Test Championship final and the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup.
