10 Australian players who failed to live up to their potential
Ever since the beginning of international cricket, Australia have been fortunate to have had a plethora of players of top-notch ability across all formats. Whether it is a Don Bradman, a Dennis Lillee or a Shane Warne, they have never had a shortage of cricketers who have played a defining role in helping their team achieve success.
Like every other country, though, they have also had a fair share of players who were unable to fulfill their immense potential.
Here are 10 Australian players who failed to live up to their potential:
(Note: In cases where a particular format is mentioned next to the concerned player, it refers to the format where they didn’t quite do justice to their cricketing ability)
1. Michael Bevan (Tests)
Widely acknowledged as one of the best finishers the game has ever seen, Michael Bevan was the chief architect of many historic ODI wins that Australia had in the 1990s and 2000s. With an ODI record of 6912 runs from 232 matches at an average of 53.58, no one argues regarding Bevan’s class as an ODI player.
However, he did not taste anywhere near the same joy in Tests where his weaknesses to the short ball were tested and exposed by the opposition. Despite numerous attempts at carving a successful Test career, his Test career was eventually limited to 785 runs from 18 Tests at an underwhelming average of 29.07 with not a single century to his name.
2. Mark Waugh (Tests)
While Mark Waugh is considered an Australian great and was recently inducted into Australian cricket’s Hall of Fame, he arguably did not realise the abundant potential he had as a batsman. Blessed with the ability to stroke the ball with consummate ease, he made things look incredibly easy when at his best and could even make opposition players stand and applaud some of his strokeplay.
With that being the case, he should have definitely done better than his 8029 runs from 128 Tests at an average of 41.81 with 20 centuries. While he always looked pretty with the bat in hand, he would often be guilty of throwing away his wicket. The fact that his highest score in Test cricket was just 153* also indicates that he lacked the penchant for big scores.
In ODI cricket, however, he did full justice to his ability as he scored 8500 runs from 244 ODIs at an average just under 40.
3. Stuart Clark
The lanky bowler from New South Wales had the knack of bowling the right lengths with pin-point accuracy and used his height to generate a considerable amount of bounce. He had a dream debut series against South Africa in Test cricket, bagging the Man of the Series for his 15 wickets at a mind-boggling average of 15.75.
With 26 wickets in Australia’s 5-0 whitewash of England in the 2006/07 Ashes series, Clark was the leading wicket-taker in the series, which was quite an achievement considering he had bowlers of the ilk of Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne in the series.
However, he failed to match his early success and eventually fell out of favour with the selectors. Despite having all the qualities of a top-notch seam bowler, he played just 24 Tests and 39 ODIs, taking 94 and 53 wickets respectively.