Cameron White relishing willow only role for Australia
By ANITuesday, January 26, 2010
ADELAIDE - Leg-spinning all-rounder Cameron White is currently the flavour of the season in Australian cricket, having scored two centuries and six half-centuries in eight games that he has played during this summer.
Few would believes that prior to this run fest, White had never passed 50 in 30 previous outings.
In 2008, selectors chose White as Australia’s frontline leg-spin bowler for four Tests against India. He took five wickets at almost 70 and barely contributed with the bat.
Last year, they decided he should move up the order and concentrate on his batting rather than his bowling, and the rest as they say is history.
According to Fox Sports, this towering Victorian was a precocious talent from a young age.
Granted the captaincy of his state at the tender age of 20, there were some who thought he would be the next Shane Warne of leg spin. Others thought he could bat and bowl. Either way, he was called on to bat, bowl and captain.
The late David Hookes preached that White should concentrate on becoming a top-six batsman if he wanted to play under the baggy green.
However, selectors rushed him into the Australia ODI side against the World XI in 2005 as a bowler, and he was used as a substitute for Damien Martyn. He was in and out of the team over the next four years. It was only when Ricky Ponting took a break from the England ODI series that White was moved up the order and his new life began.
“I understand my role the way I am going at the moment, we’ve got plenty of bowling options, I am ready to bowl if required, but it doesn’t seem as if I am needed,” White was quoted, as saying.hite has not completely given up on bowling, however.
“The more I am bowling the greater chance it will give me to be a better player for the team, so that’s something I need to keep working on to be a better player,” he said. (ANI)
