Adam Voges’ incredible rise from chopping block to record-breaker
IT was a brutal choice but Adam Voges had to decide what he wanted to slip on — a wedding ring or his country’s cricket cap? What did the record-breaker choose?
Cricket
Don't miss out on the headlines from Cricket. Followed categories will be added to My News.
IT was a brutal choice but Adam Voges had to decide what he wanted to slip on — a wedding ring or his country’s cricket cap?
After intense contemplation he drew a deep breath and made the call thousands would never be brave enough to do.
He said “I do’’ to his wife and “I can’t’’ to his country.
That was six years ago when Voges was taken by surprise by his selection in the Australian one-day side to tour South Africa.
He had only played one 50-over international at the time but turned down the invite to get married.
When it was suggested he may never play again he made no attempt to downplay the consequences.
“There’s every possibility that that could be the case,” Voges said.
“There’s certainly no guarantees that I’m going to get selected again and I fully understand that.’’
Voges was basically challenging himself to overcome the setback and take the big stage by storm.
All these years later he has. It was a long wait. A turbulent ride.
But he’s got there at age 36, not on his hands and knees but in a horse-drawn chariot and the wedding story gives us an insight into the self-styled strength of a character who just never gave in.
Voges for a while on the weekend had a better Test batting average than Don Bradman before it fell to 97.46, just under Bradman’s, when he went for 239 yesterday.
For all the statistical glory, his record has an asterisk in that when Australia really, truly, deeply needed him during the most important assignment of his career — last year’s Ashes — he failed five times in a row.
He has so far slaughtered the West Indies and New Zealand but many do. England, South Africa and India in India are the true test.
But it is still a remarkable, original, flavoursome tale full of lessons for youngsters who want to follow him.
Voges has seen the game’s lofty peaks and lonely valleys, such as the day he was dropped to become skipper of the West Australian second XI.
In a display of defiance, he bowled 10 different bowlers in the first 10 overs. It prompted WACA chief executive Graeme Wood to rush from his office to find out what was happening.
Voges even contemplated quitting Australian cricket four years ago when he averaged in the mid-20s for his state.
Just the thought of Bradman and Voges being mentioned in the same sentence seems as incongruous as lining up Beethoven with Bieber, but there is another quirky connection between the two — they both loved light bats.
Bradman’s — at two pound two ounces — was so light it almost floated and Voges has also defied the modern trend of using weapons of mass destruction.
His bat is not as light as Bradman’s but it is one of the lightest used in Australia and it gives him the chance to whip the ball with flexible wrists.
There is another moral of Voges’ career that deserves to be up in neon lights — England is still the best finishing school.
Just like Matt Hayden, Chris Rogers, Mike Hussey and Mark Waugh before him, Voges finetuned the nuances of his craft in England, not with a fleeting cameo but by going back and back to the likes of Hampshire, Nottinghamshire and Middlesex.
From turning decks of Northhampton to the bounce of the Oval to the green seamers of Headingley, batsmen who go to England get everything thrown at them.
A few years ago a Test selector said “no one ever gets better after 35’’ and it was based on more than a century of solid evidence.
Yet Voges has. Not even Bradman did that.
As interesting as the present is the future.
Will he be here this time next year? Could he be promoted to be a team leader?
Will he be gone if he has one bad series? And with what sort of average?
Will Australia’s selectors have a more liberal view of older players?
It’s been an absorbing story to date but the most intriguing chapters may have yet to be written.
Pink flayed! Warner and Marnus put the lights out on Pakistan
David Warner and Marnus Labuschagne both posted unbeaten centuries as the tourists had no answer to their relentless accumulation of runs across a rain affected first day and night in Adelaide, with only one result now likely.
Steve Smith apologises to Aussie teammates over Shield blow-up
Steve Smith has apologised to his Australian teammates ahead of the first Test, after a behavioural lapse against Western Australia saw him fined for dissent.