On October 21, 1971: The world welcomed a great Australian cricketer who hones from the Northern Territories of Australia by name, Damien Martyn.
Martyn’s saga is no short of an odyssey of overcoming countless hurdles which employed a professional driver’s seat view of the series on and off the cricket field as he rose from being a relatively unknown player to one of Australia’s legends.
Martyn was born in Darwin and spent the majority of his initial childhood in remote areas, something which was to help develop his character steel in future toughs in his career.
It is this quality for which he remained unique out of all the athletes, resilience in the face of adversity.
The Early Setback: Frozen Out for Seven Years
Martyn was brutally hammered when Australia was defeated by South Africa in a one-day Cricket in Sydney in January 1994 by being made a scapegoat for the entire disaster.
He lost his place in the Test team and remained out of business for seven years before he got his chance to be back in the international arena.
This period of his career remains filled with frustration and pondering, which, in many players, would be a recipe for burning out, but Martyn used all of that to hone his abilities.
But when he was selected in the Test squad again in 2000, he was a different man, a much wiser and a tougher contender to prove himself.
His cricket career further echoed a thrilling narrative when in the 2003 World Cup final, he played an unbeaten 88 runs knock clutching a broken finger.
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Golden Period and Sudden Retirement
From the middle of March 2004 till December 2005, Martyn had one of the great Test batting periods, scoring 1608 runs at 61.
He took two Man-of-the-Series awards, and for the first time in his career, his performances marked him as one of Australia’s premier batsmen.
Nevertheless, the flood of runs stalled in the Ashes series played in England in 2005 by scoring a mere 178 runs in the whole series.
Two more umpiring disputes complicated his miseries and he was a victim of the Ashes loss to Australia.
Though Martyn had a poor serie s in Ashes he contributed to the Australian team winning their first Champions Trophy in 2006.
After two initial failures in two Tests during the 2006-07 Ashes series, he took everybody by surprise announcing his retirement.
Martyn’s finesse with the bat and graceful posture off the field and on the field is also a testament to what he left behind – resilience in adversity and a performer’s ability to cash in when it counts.
References:
ESPNCricInfo.com
Outlook.com
