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The Stephen Fleming Appreciation Society

Somerset

Cricketer Of The Year
Best Flem moment anyone?
Top three for me:
134* vs South Africa in the 2003 World Cup.
Century off about 60 deliveries against Murali and Warne's FICA XI in January 2005 at Christchurch.
274 and 69 against Sri Lanka (against Murali again) in Sri Lanka in 2003.

Obviously theres a host of other possibilities (262 against South Africa especially) but those ones listed above are personally my favourites innings from Fleming.
 

Somerset

Cricketer Of The Year
Has to be the WACA 2001/02 Test really - scored a century, and almost won the game (very possibly would have but for Ian Robinson). Had he done so, he'd have been the only captain to captain a side to victory in Australia in the last 15 years.
I wonder if anyone can actually remember Ian Robinson for anything else other than his inability to give New Zealanders wickets in that Perth test in 2001....personally none spring to mind. :p
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
I remember him for his disgraceful failure to act as Courtney Walsh bombarded Devon Malcolm with a succession of vicious, needless Bouncers at the end of a Test at Sabina Park in 1994.
 

_Ed_

Request Your Custom Title Now!
I wrote a tribute to the man for the student magazine at my university, hope it gets published this week.

I'll post it here some time in the near future.
 

Macka

U19 Vice-Captain
Best Flem moment anyone?
1) The countless times he started a batting collapse after looking set.
2) His inability to lead by example
3) The time he sent in Kyle MIlls ahead of himself at 3 against SA when batting looked "a bit tough".
4) Every time Bracken or Vaas nailed him LBW.

Just a few off the top of my head. Long may memory of him be forgotten.
 

Days of Grace

International Captain
1) The countless times he started a batting collapse after looking set.
2) His inability to lead by example
3) The time he sent in Kyle MIlls ahead of himself at 3 against SA when batting looked "a bit tough".
4) Every time Bracken or Vaas nailed him LBW.

Just a few off the top of my head. Long may memory of him be forgotten.
Ha ha, and people like you call yourselfs fans of NZ cricket 8-)
 

Macka

U19 Vice-Captain
Every time as in never?

Out four times LBW in ODI matches against Australia - twice to Lee, once to McGrath and once to Hogg.

Try again.
Fair enough, but Bracken got his man every 3rd game they played. Vaas had him LBW 5/28 times they were both playing. Make of that what you will.

Fleming's reign was anathema to New Zealand cricket. He should never have been captain as long as he was. His batting showed little improvement throughout his career despite his obvious potential; he's constantly said he's "not mentally strong enough"; and, well, as a leader, he has not lead by example.

Not the captain I'd want. Heck, not the boss I'd want in any job.

He's had his moments, got a lot of NZ records becaue he's played the most games, captained us well when he was young, but his time should ahve ended as captain years ago.
 

Flem274*

123/5
Fair enough, but Bracken got his man every 3rd game they played. Vaas had him LBW 5/28 times they were both playing. Make of that what you will.

Fleming's reign was anathema to New Zealand cricket. He should never have been captain as long as he was. His batting showed little improvement throughout his career despite his obvious potential; he's constantly said he's "not mentally strong enough"; and, well, as a leader, he has not lead by example.

Not the captain I'd want. Heck, not the boss I'd want in any job.

He's had his moments, got a lot of NZ records becaue he's played the most games, captained us well when he was young, but his time should ahve ended as captain years ago.
Go find me a better skipper and batsman in 90's doemstic cricket and you can have your bitchy little whinges in this thread labelled "correct"

If you were offered a batsman that would average 40 and be as successful as Fleming has been back when we had **** all, even back in early 2000s, you'd have to be mentally ******** not to take him. Thats my 2c.

And for someone with the username Macka, if its named after McMillan then I find it ironic you bitch about Fleming wasting his talent so much.
 

Leslie1

U19 Captain
Fact is he's the only batsman with any class during the mid 90s after Crowe's retirement. He's still the only class batsman, although at least now we are seeing talent coming through in How, Taylor, Ryder, Flynn and Hay.

No one else had the same stickability + all the shots like Fleming does during his career in the Black Caps.

A few notables in Richardson, Astle and McMillan for a bit but that's about it in terms of batting. And Richardson aside, they are all so inconsistent, but we can't drop them because the talents just aren't there in the domestic cricket.

There have been some crappy teams Fleming had to work with as captain. Be interesting to list some utter trite sides during his tenure as captain.
 

DaRick

State Vice-Captain
Bet you're surprised I made this:happy:

What it says on the tin really, my summary on him is:

Batsman: Good batsman, conversion rate was what stopped him from being an NZ great
Slip: One of the greats
Captain: One of the greats
...as did his occassional opening stints, which should never have occured, due to his tendency to get rooted to the crease against quality swing-and-seam (ala McGrath in NZ 2005). In his favour though, his record overseas was very good.

I agree with the rest of your sentiments, although, while he was certainly a modern captaincy great (1997-), we can't concusively say that he was a true all-time great. I'm not ruling that possibility out, though.
 

Somerset

Cricketer Of The Year
...as did his occassional opening stints, which should never have occured, due to his tendency to get rooted to the crease against quality swing-and-seam (ala McGrath in NZ 2005). In his favour though, his record overseas was very good.

I agree with the rest of your sentiments, although, while he was certainly a modern captaincy great (1997-), we can't concusively say that he was a true all-time great. I'm not ruling that possibility out, though.
To be fair, some of his more highly rated innings came in the opening position (134* vs SA in the World Cup, 106 vs Fica XI, the second innings after his 274 against Sri Lanka, 100 against England at Trent Bridge in 2004). He had the technique and in order to find the best balance within the side it was pretty logical IMO.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
To be fair, some of his more highly rated innings came in the opening position (134* vs SA in the World Cup, 106 vs Fica XI, the second innings after his 274 against Sri Lanka, 100 against England at Trent Bridge in 2004). He had the technique and in order to find the best balance within the side it was pretty logical IMO.
A 69* ranks among his best innings? :huh:
 

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