Australian bowler Jason Krejza, center, is congratulated by teammates Ricky Ponting, right, and Mike Hussey for dismissing Indian batsman Ishant Sharma, unseen, on the second day of the fourth and final cricket test match between India and Australia in Nagpur, India, Friday, Nov. 7, 2008. AP Photo/Gautam Singh
Is Jason ‘Krazy’ Krejza injured or kidnapped? I had asked this question on The Roar last fortnight. As I have not received an answer, I presume he is neither. He is forgotten by the selectors.
Strange, because he is a spinner and a spinner is what Australia needs.
Let’s go back to his Test debut in Nagpur in November 2008. He took 8-215 in the first innings and 4-143 in the second.
Expensive but effective. Especially because Indian batsmen are masters at flaying spinners.
To capture 12 wickets on one’s Test debut is rare. Only Australia’s Bob Massie and India’s Narendra Hirwani with 16 wickets each had better initiations in 1972 and in 1988, and England’s Frederick Martin had started off with 12 scalps way back in 1890.
Since the Nagpur debut Krejza has been selected in only one Test, against South Africa in Perth last December. Although expensive as an off-spinner, he batted well in both innings scoring an unbeaten 30 in the first knock and 32 in the second.
Krejza has yet to play in a one-day international.
He is not even a contracted player.
To be picked only once in a Test after a great initiation must be frustrating for him.
Such neglect by selectors reminds me of the sad tale of a West Indian opening batsman. In his only Test, against England six decades ago, he scored a century. And he was never selected in a Test again, believe it or not!
The Andy Ganteaume story defies logic. He was 27 when he scored a century on debut against England in the Port-of-Spain Test of February 1948. He is 88 now and still cannot explain why he was never again picked in a Test after scoring 112 in his only Test innings.
He retired a decade later with a Test batting average of 112.00, the only one to average higher than Don Bradman. It was a pleasure discussing Andy’s bitter-sweet moment with him, his memory razor sharp.
I asked him, “After such a dream start why were you never picked again in a Test?”
“I’ve asked this question to myself for 60 years and cannot get the answer. I was told that I had batted slowly, disregarding my captain’s orders. I disagree. When captain Gerry Gomez sent a note to us to bat faster, Frank Worrell told me to ignore it and said, ‘Let’s sun them [Englishmen] some more.’ ”
Worrell went on to become a legend while Ganteaume is a forgotten man.
“I ask anyone, could you imagine any player of the Establishment being dropped immediately after making a century in his first Test for batting slow?”, he continued. “Had I played the next Test and scored well, it would have been very difficult to bring back injured [regular opener] Jeff Stollmeyer with Geo Carew in brilliant form. It would have been embarrassing for them. Things got curious and curiouser. Them’s my sentiments.”
Krazy Krejza can echo Ganteaume’s sentiments.
If people can lose their job, and clubs can face massive payouts, due to the behaviour of coaches, it will drastically change the way sporting teams in Australia will be run.
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