George Bailey: The quiet achiever from Australia

As aficionados, when we envisage Australian batsmen at the crease, the image that immediately flashes in everyone’s mind is of a player who bats with swagger, and has that imperious touch to send shivers through the opposition camp. As a keen cricket enthusiast, I still remember Australia’s former captain, Ricky Ponting, snarling and sledging at the gentle giant, Srinath, for smashing his helmet with a brute of a bouncer at MCG in 99/00. On that occasion, Ponting seemed to be the vicious and mean fast bowler, with Srinath being the terrified batsman.

Australia’s stand-in skipper in one-day internationals, and middle order batsman, George Bailey, doesn’t fit into the mould of a typical Australian cricketer. With that polite and dignified smile at a presentation ceremony, he isn’t your quintessential hard-nosed Australian skipper. If we scratch the surface though, underneath, one can sense a cricketer who is fiercely determined, and even in the toughest of situations, assuages a young side with a touch of calm countenance.

It was only last year that Australian selectors sent shock waves through the cricketing world by appointing Bailey as the captain of the T20 side. Former greats of Australia panned the selectors left and right for picking what they thought was a journeyman batsman. Some of them even ridiculed Bailey, and reckoned he was a non-playing captain.

Yes, it is true that the appointment of Bailey as the captain of Australia came out of the blue. Even those who have followed Sheffield Shield, and Australia’s domestic one-day games with dedication and devotion, struggle to remember him playing too many eye-catching knocks for Tasmania. The one knock I vividly remember reading about was his backs-to-the-wall gritty century against Western Australia at Perth in 05/06 that helped Tasmania to clinch a nerve-wracking two wicket win. He has definitely been a touch inconsistent in Sheffield Shield.

One suspects his rapid rise to leading the Australian side in the shorter formats of the game was more to do with how well the mettlesome Bailey led Tasmanian Tigers to a famous triumph in the FR cup in 09/10. Bailey also seemed to thrive as a batsman, while shouldering the additional responsibility of captaining the side. His record of 538 runs at an impressive average of 59.77 gives us ample proof of how Bailey carved a niche for himself as a one-day batsman during that season in 09/10.

Slowly but steadily, Bailey has made his detractors eat humble pie. In the 22 One-day internationals he has played for Australia, Bailey has chalked up impressive numbers, as he averages 45.5 with a respectable strike rate of 83.74. His scintillating knock of 125 laced with 10 boundaries and four sixes against West Indies at WACA this year, showed us he has those power-packed shots up his sleeve too.

Even in the just concluded drab encounter in the Champions trophy against their traditional rivals England, it was only Bailey who stood tall among the ruins. Bailey, with his impeccable shot selection and controlled approach, played a valiant knock in a losing cause. Apart from him, none of the hapless Australian batsmen could decipher the modus operandi of Anderson’s controlled mastery of reverse swing/contrast swing.

Yet, after the loss against England, there is a feeling in cricketing circles that Bailey doesn’t deserve a place in the present Australian side. Here is a cricketer on whom acres of print overflowing with superlative adjectives would never be written. But that doesn’t seem to bother Bailey one bit, as he quietly goes about his job of scoring runs for his country.

Actually, it is surprising that Bailey hasn’t found a place in the Ashes squad to play against England. If Australia want to upset the apple-cart and beat England in their own patch, they need the calm head of Bailey to shore up a batting line-up that seems more like a rudderless ship. It isn’t right to expect the injury plagued captain, Clarke, to perform like a super human, and make mountains of runs. After all, cricket is a team game, and Clarke alone can’t win matches for Australia.

For the time being, as the stand-in skipper of Australia in the Champions trophy, Bailey has a task on his hands. In the match against England, the Australian team was a pale shadow of its former self, as they put up an enervated performance. But never write off Australia, as there is every chance that under the able stewardship of the quiet and unassuming Bailey, they may surprise a few cricket pundits. He has already done that in domestic cricket for Tasmania, and when he steered an unfancied Australian side to the semifinals in the 2012 World T20. It has to be said though, to exhort a bunch of dispirited cricketers and lead them to victory in Champions trophy will be an enormous task for even Bailey.

Bailey isn’t another Ricky Ponting to play with his famed swagger and become a courageous conquistador. He lacks the flair and flamboyance of Clarke. But make no mistake, Bailey knows his game inside-out, and has the temperament to deliver the goods for Australia.