Stephen Fleming

Stephen Fleming

Personal information
Full name	Stephen Paul Fleming
Born	(1973-04-01) 1 April 1973 Christchurch, New Zealand
Batting style	Left-handed batsman
Bowling style	Right-arm medium
Role	Captain, Higher middle order batsman, Coach
International information
National side	New Zealand
Test debut (cap 188)	19 March 1994 v India
Last Test	22 March 2008 v England
ODI debut (cap 88)	25 March 1994 v India
Last ODI	24 April 2007 v Sri Lanka
ODI shirt no.	7
Domestic team information
Years	Team
2000–2009	Wellington
2005–2007	Nottinghamshire
2003	Yorkshire
2001	Middlesex
1991–2000	Canterbury
2008	Chennai Super Kings
Career statistics
Competition Test ODI FC List A Matches 111 280[1] 247 461 Runs scored 7,172 8,037 16,409 14,037 Batting average 40.06 32.40 43.87 35.09 100s/50s 9/46 8/49 35/93 22/86 Top score 274* 134* 274* 139* Balls bowled – 29 102 35 Wickets – 1 0 2 Bowling average – 28.00 – 15.50 5 wickets in innings – 0 0 0 10 wickets in match – n/a 0 n/a Best bowling – 1/8 0/0 1/3 Catches/stumpings 171/– 133/– 340/– 226/–
Source: CricketArchive, 20 September 2008

Stephen Paul Fleming, ONZM (born 1 April 1973) is a former New Zealand cricketer, and captain of the New Zealand national cricket team, known as the Black Caps, in Test and one-day cricket. Known for his astute tactical abilities, he is New Zealand's second-most capped test player with 111 test appearances, longest-serving and most successful captain,^{[2] [3]} having led the side to 28 victories and having won Test match series' against India, England, West Indies, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. He retired from international cricket on 26 March 2008. Fleming played in the 2008 Indian Premier League for the Chennai Super Kings after being signed for US$350,000 and became the team's coach from 2009.^[4] In February 2015 he was signed as coach of the Melbourne Stars of the Big Bash League.^[5]

He was particularly noted for his captaincy, having been praised from the likes of Shane Warne as the "best captain in world cricket"^[6] and most recently, Graeme Swann who said that Fleming is one of the two true leaders that he's ever seen, alongside Andrew Strauss.^[7]

Cricket career

A left-handed batsman, Fleming made his Test debut in March 1994 against India winning the Man of the Match award on debut after scoring 92. In 1995 he survived controversy when he was caught and admitted to smoking marijuana with teammates Matthew Hart and Dion Nash while on tour at their hotel.^[8] In England's tour of New Zealand in 1996/97 he scored his maiden Test century in the First Test at Auckland. In the Third Test of the tour he took over the captaincy from Lee Germon becoming New Zealand's youngest captain at 23 years and 321 days.

Fleming became New Zealand's most successful captain in September 2000 with a victory over Zimbabwe. This was the 12th win under his captaincy overtaking Geoff Howarth. Fleming was regarded by some as an underperformer with the bat, with one of the worst 50 to 100 conversion ratios in world cricket. However, since the 2003 tour of Sri Lanka, Fleming started to gain form, with 274 not out against Sri Lanka – when he declared rather than staying to reach 300 which would have been a record in New Zealand cricket history.

Arguably Fleming's best ODI innings was his unbeaten 134 to help New Zealand beat hosts South Africa in the 2003 Cricket World Cup. Chasing a rain adjusted target of 229 off 39 overs, Fleming hit 134 off just 132 deliveries as New Zealand cruised to a 9-wicket victory over a team they had struggled against in the past.

Fleming adjusting the field at Nottinghamshire. Fleming was regarded as one of the world's best cricket captains.

Fleming has played county cricket in England for Middlesex, Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire. He captained Nottinghamshire to County Championship victory in 2005, their first Championship title in 18 years. (Richard Hadlee was their star then, narrowly missing the county 'double').

In the second Test between New Zealand and South Africa at Newlands, Cape Town in April 2006, Fleming scored his 3rd Test double-century and became the first New Zealander to achieve this feat. Fleming scored 262 as he and Wellington team-mate James Franklin put 256 runs for the 8th wicket, the highest partnership to date in Tests between New Zealand and South Africa. It is also a New Zealand record for the 8th wicket against any country.

On 25 October 2006, Fleming captained his country for the 194th time in an ODI – a world record, overtaking Arjuna Ranatunga.He played well throughout the 2007 World Cup scoring 353 runs at an average of 39.22 and was New Zealand's second highest run scorer in the tournament.He failed in the semi-final against Sri Lanka scoring just 1 off 4 balls as New Zealand went on to lose the match and crashed out of the tournament. On 24 April 2007, Fleming resigned as the ODI captain of the Blackcaps. The announcement was made in a post-match press conference held after the Semi-Final defeat to Sri Lanka in the 2007 Cricket World Cup.^[9] After Fleming's last match as captain, Mahela Jayawardene added a tribute. "Stephen's been a great leader for New Zealand for some time, and you could learn a lot from him". Over a decade of leading the side he finished with 218 games, 98 wins, 106 losses.

There was speculation in 2007 that he might join controversial Indian rebel Twenty20 league, the Indian Cricket League. However it turned out to be unfounded and he has since joined the 'official' Indian Twenty20 league, the Indian Premier League, and played for the Chennai Super Kings in the league's initial incarnation.

As of April 2007, Fleming had captained New Zealand in 80 Test matches—a New Zealand record and the second highest number worldwide .^[10] As a fielder, Fleming took over 170 catches giving him the 3rd highest Test aggregate for a non-wicketkeeper.^[11]

In September 2007, Fleming was replaced by Daniel Vettori as the New Zealand Test captain. He also left English county Nottinghamshire after three years as captain. In February 2008 Fleming ended speculation and confirmed his retirement from the New Zealand team at the end of England's 2008 tour of New Zealand to spend more time with his family, and to play for the Indian Premier League.^[3]

He played well in his final series, scoring 297 in six innings. In the first innings of the second test against England, he scored his 7000th run in his 110th match. In his final test at, Napier, he scored half-centuries in both innings to ensure that he finished with a Test match average of over 40 (40.06).

Playing style

Fleming was an elegant left handed batsman and played shots such as the flick off the pads, straight drive, cover drive and cut shots. He was also a clever captain and his field placings for many batsmen like Damien Martyn at point and aggressive captaincy made the opposition struggle for their runs. He was also a prolific slip catcher and fielded well in close-in positions.

Records

International records

• Most capped ODI Captain (218 matches as of 24 April 2007)^[12]
• The most catches in Tests by a fielder in a calendar year with 28 in 1997^[13]

National records

• Most Test runs and matches by a New Zealander (7172 and 111)
• Most ODI runs and matches by a New Zealander (8007 and 279)
• Most catches by a New Zealander in Test and ODI cricket (171 and 132)
• Most capped Test Captain for New Zealand (80 matches)
• Most capped ODI Captain for New Zealand (218 matches)

An innings-by-innings breakdown of Fleming's Test match batting career, showing runs scored (red bars) and the average of the last ten innings (blue line).

Test centuries

The following table illustrates a summary of the Test centuries scored by Stephen Fleming.

• In the column Runs, * indicates being not out.
• The column title Match refers to the Match Number of his career.

Stephen Fleming's Test Centuries[14]
#	Runs	Match	Against	City/Country	Venue	Year	Result
[1]	129	23	England	Auckland, New Zealand	Eden Park	1997	Drawn
[2]	174*	35	Sri Lanka	Colombo, Sri Lanka	R. Premadasa Stadium	1998	Won
[3]	105	63	Australia	Perth, Australia	W.A.C.A. Ground	2001	Drawn
[4]	130	70	West Indies	Bridgetown, Barbados	Kensington Oval	2002	Won
[5]	274*	74	Sri Lanka	Colombo, Sri Lanka	P Sara Oval	2003	Drawn
[6]	192	78	Pakistan	Hamilton, New Zealand	Seddon Park	2003	Drawn
[7]	117	85	England	Nottingham, England, United Kingdom	Trent Bridge	2004	Lost
[8]	202	87	Bangladesh	Chittagong, Bangladesh	MA Aziz Stadium	2004	Won
[9]	262	101	South Africa	Cape Town, South Africa	Newlands Cricket Ground	2006	Drawn

One day international centuries

Stephen Fleming's One Day International Centuries[15]
#	Runs	Match	Against	City/Country	Venue	Year	Result
[1]	106*	45	West Indies	Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago	Queen's Park Oval	1996	Won
[2]	116*	76	Australia	Melbourne, Australia	Melbourne Cricket Ground	1998	Won
[3]	111*	81	Australia	Napier, New Zealand	McLean Park	1998	Won
[4]	134*	192	South Africa	Johannesburg, South Africa	The Wanderers Stadium	2003	Won
[5]	115*	210	Pakistan	Christchurch, New Zealand	AMI Stadium	2004	Won
[6]	108	214	South Africa	Christchurch, New Zealand	AMI Stadium	2004	Won
[7]	106	267	England	Brisbane, Australia	Brisbane Cricket Ground	2007	Lost
[8]	102*	275	Bangladesh	North Sound, Antigua and Barbuda	Sir Vivian Richards Stadium	2007	Won

Indian Premier League

Fleming played for the Chennai Super Kings in the 2008 Indian Premier League after being signed for US$350,000. He played 10 matches and scored 196 runs at an average of 21.77 with a highest score of 45. He was appointed as Coach of the Chennai Super Kings in 2009 and retired as a player from the team. He has had a very successful stint with the team winning the IPL 2010, CLT20 2010 and IPL 2011. He coached Chennai Super Kings for 6 years then it become banned in IPL for two years according to the decision of Justice RM Lodha committee. In IPL 2016 he became the coach of Rising Pune Supergiants.

Business interests

Fleming has since been involved in setting up CricHQ with the company's CEO Simon Baker and former New Zealand cricket captain Brendon McCullum. Fleming is one of 160 investors and a director in the company. Having met Simon Baker with Brendon McCullum he commented that CricHQ "clicked with us both as a business and a means of giving back to the game that had given us so much'. The cricket competition management software and live scoring platform manages the administration of cricket test countries New Zealand, Sri Lanka, South Africa and Zimbabwe with 49 of 105 national governing bodies also use its services from club level upwards. In June 2015 it raised US$10m from Singapore private equity firm Tembusu Partners to expand globally.^[16]

Personal life

Fleming's birth was a result of a brief relationship between his mother Pauline Fleming and Gary Kirk. Pauline raised him as a single mother, and he did not meet his father until he was 16. Gary Kirk had always maintained a keen interest in his son's progress. Both Gary Kirk and Stephen Fleming played senior rugby and captained Cashmere High's first XV.^[17]

On 9 May 2007, Fleming married his long term partner Kelly Payne in a ceremony held in Wellington. The couple had a daughter Tayla born in 2006 and a son called Cooper in 2008.^[18] He recently had to return to New Zealand just before the Semi Finals of the IPL tournament in India for the birth of his second child, Cooper. His father was President of the South Christchurch Cricket Club. He was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2011 Queen's Birthday Honours, for services to cricket.^[19]

References

Kiwi for Class ^[1]

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Stephen Fleming.

• Stephen Fleming on Twitter
• Player profile: Stephen Fleming from ESPNcricinfo
• Player profile: Stephen Fleming from CricketArchive
• Siddhartha Vaidyanathan in Mohali (24 October 2006). "Champions Trophy 2006: 'My style of captaincy has gone 360 degrees' - Fleming". ESPNCricinfo. Retrieved 26 February 2013. 

New Zealand Squads
New Zealand squad – 1996 Cricket World Cup 1 Germon (c/wk) 2 Astle 3 Cairns 4 Fleming 5 Harris 6 Kennedy 7 Larsen 8 Morrison 9 Nash 10 Parore 11 Patel 12 Spearman 13 Thomson 14 Twose New Zealand squad – 1999 Cricket World Cup Semi-Finalists 1 Fleming 2 Allott 3 Astle 4 Bulfin 5 Cairns 6 Doull 7 Harris 8 Hart 9 Horne 10 Larsen 11 McMillan 12 Nash 13 Parore 14 Twose 15 Vettori Coach: Rixon New Zealand squad – 2003 Cricket World Cup 5 Harris 6 Cairns 7 Fleming (c) 8 Vincent 9 Astle 10 McMillan 11 Vettori 14 Tuffey 18 Sinclair 20 Mills 24 Oram 27 Bond 41 Adams 42 McCullum 56 Styris Coach: Aberhart New Zealand squad – 2007 Cricket World Cup Semi-Finalists 3 Taylor 7 Fleming (c) 10 McMillan 11 Vettori 14 Tuffey 17 Gillespie 24 Oram 27 Bond 32 Martin 34 Marshall 39 Patel 40 Vincent 42 McCullum 45 Mason 50 Fulton 56 Styris 70 Franklin Coach: Bracewell Tuffey and Vincent were injured during the tournament and replaced in the squad by Martin and Marshall respectively.

1. ↑ http://www.newindianexpress.com/education/edex/Kiwi-for-Class/2014/09/01/article2404947.ece