So much has been written and said about ‘the Bullring’. The Wanderers in Johannesburg is to South Africans what the MCG is to Australians: a fortress of intimidation. A stronghold where visitors quiver upon mention and suffocate on arrival. Australia’s ice man Steve Waugh said even he was intimidated by the venue. The fans sit on top of the players, baying for blood. Merv Hughes was angered to the point of violent backlash. Adam Gilchrist and Damien Martyn were doused in a mixture of saliva and beer. Ian Healy said that South African fans are so similar to Australia’s, which is what makes it so scary.
Yet, like England’s home of cricket Lord’s, the Wanderers has laid down arms for Australia in recent times. Three out of the last three test matches played there have gone the way of the baggy greens, two by an innings. A World Cup was won there. And although the record run chase in ODI history was conceded there, a test match victory of the highest order was achieved no less than a month later.
Some of Australia’s finest individual performances have taken place there. In 1997, Greg Blewett and Steve Waugh batted through an entire day together to set up an innings victory. Blewett posted his highest test score of 214 in a stand of 385 with his vice-captain, the second highest fifth wicket partnership in test history.
In 2002, haunted by personal troubles and an unforgiving crowd, Adam Gilchrist bludgeoned what was then the fastest double century in test history. Again it laid the platform for a frightful innings hiding of the hosts.
When the whites are swapped for the pyjamas at the Wanderers Ricky Ponting becomes unstoppable. His 140no in the 2003 World Cup final saw his turbaned-tormentor Harbhajan Singh get torched by the Ponting blade. Such was the incredible power of his hitting Ian Harvey was prompted get a bag of ice ready for the middle of Ponting’s bat upon its return to the rooms.
In the 2006 one-day classic at the Wanderers it was Ponting again setting a new standard for excellence. His 164 off 105 deliveries was outrageous, but unfortunately eclipsed later by Herschelle Gibbs’ masterful 175.
But of all the Australian conquerors of ‘the Bullring’, few have had the success of the much maligned matador Damien Martyn.
South Africa was supposed to haunt Martyn. The demons of 1994 could well have done irreparable damage. Martyn was a Darwin born, West Australian raised prodigy. A first grade hundred arrived aged 15, his first-class debut came at 19, and he received his first baggy green a month after his 21st birthday. Martyn showed enough against the West Indian pace-battery in the summer of 1992-93 to gain invites to tour New Zealand and England during the autumn and winter, but he played just one test in Auckland.
The following summer would haunt him for years to come. In his seventh test match he posted 59 in the first dig, his third half century in 11 test innings. But his 12th in the same game would be a nail in his cricketing coffin. A feeble pushed catch to cover for 6 saw him become the scapegoat for one of Australia’s worst ever test collapses. On his tombstone they would write ‘too flashy, too soft’, and he was cast to state ranks for the rest of the decade.
He was burdened with the WA captaincy, an office he could hardly have been less suited for. Martyn was a mysterious, mercurial character. He shunned the spotlight, and hated being centre of attention. His game suffered in the centric role. He was best suited to being left alone. To being the man in the dressing room who quietly went about his own game, undisturbed by outside influence, in order to produce match winning brilliance that could not be articulated but was much appreciated.
When Tom Moody replaced him, Martyn’s appetite for runs returned. He formed the backbone of WA’s back-to-back-to-back four-day domestic titles. He was Man of the Match in the last. Chicken pox and glandular fever felled his equally prolific WA teammate Simon Katich during the 1999 tour of Sri Lanka, setting back Katich’s national promotion 24 months. Katich’s ill-fortune gave Martyn a rebirth. When Ponting damaged an ankle in January 2000, Martyn returned to test cricket in New Zealand. He was no longer a soft, flashy stroke-maker, but a reliable, classy accumulator. Martyn made exceptional contributions in Wellington and Hamilton, but with Ponting’s rightful return imminent he knew he had to bide his time.
His opportunity came once more with an injury to Steve Waugh in December 2000. This time he ensured that his cricketing tombstone was crushed emphatically. He followed a composed 46no in the first innings with 34no in the second after he’d entered to flashes of déjà vu, with Australia 4 for 48 chasing 130 for its 13th consecutive test victory.
Waugh’s return saw Martyn miss out again as they went with their tried and trusted in India. The theory that Martyn was vulnerable to world-class spin would have to be dispelled on the next sub-continental tour as the incumbent number six Ponting averaged less than a meagre boundary per innings and was Harbhajan-ed five times out of five.
Amazingly the Tasmanian was promoted to three for the first test of the 2001 Ashes, mainly due to limited overs form, at the expense of Justin Langer which allowed Martyn a full-time role. He celebrated with his first two test hundreds in Birmingham and Leeds.
Although his game had changed his ego and maturity was still vulnerable. Stephen Fleming and the New Zealand side toyed with him in the summer of 2001-02. Rather than target a weakness they banked on his strength, bowling short and wide and stacking the point and gully region waiting for a mistake. Time after time it came. Such was the success of the ploy it eventually became humiliatingly humorous for not only the fans but Martyn himself. It is an apt description for the often-worn smirk after the West Australian was dismissed to either a great catch or an unjust adjudication.
But Martyn redeemed himself at the Wanderers in 2002. His first visit provided his third test century in four test innings, all against South Africa. But it was ‘the Bullring’ where Martyn and Gilchrist stood shoulder to shoulder for 317 runs, defying the Proteas' attack, a feral crowd, and a barrage of abuse against his partner, the vice-captain.
Gilchrist was forever grateful for Martyn’s support. Despite his aloofness with the press he was much loved in the dressing rooms.
His love affair with the Wanderers continued in the 2003 World Cup. Despite a badly broken index finger he shunned the pain and the perception of his marsh-mellow interior to make 88no in the final. He was the silent partner in the 234-run stand with his captain but his innings was no less valuable in setting up a second successive World Cup win. Martyn’s finger was so bad he had to forego the subsequent tour of the Caribbean.
Martyn’s crowning glory came on the sub-continent in 2004. Having destroyed attacks on the fast and bouncy WACA tracks of his early first-class career he was perceived as a pace specialist. He was extraordinary in Sri Lanka. Each Australian batsman was left to their own devices to formulate a plan for Muttiah Muralitharan. The two most successful were Darren Lehmann and Martyn, with two plans that could not have been more contrasting. Lehmann never stayed still, whilst Martyn played back to everything. Two centuries apiece ensured Australia won three-nil after trailing in the first innings of each test match.
In India, arguably Australia’s greatest triumph of their golden era, Martyn was Man of the Series. He went within three runs of scoring three consecutive centuries, and he was the only Australian bat to tame the monstrosity of a surface in Mumbai. For twelve months he was Australia’s best player but with so many successes coming abroad he never received the recognition he so richly deserved. Michael Clarke won the Allan Border medal that year, voters blinded to Martyn’s brilliance by the young star.
The Ashes 2005 would be his darkest hour, as it was for so many of his teammates. Rumours were abound that Martyn was sick of cricket. He was plagued by ill-fortune throughout the series, copping some very rough umpiring adjudications. Running out his captain at Trent Bridge, combined with a horrendous shot at the Oval, as well as whispers of discontent amongst the unit at Martyn’s failure to appear at rostered sponsors’ functions, and his general attitude, rightly or wrongly cost him his test place.
For the summer of 2005-06 he plied his trade in state and grade cricket, all the while wrestling with his relationship with the game. He struggled for the most part bar a one-day hundred against Victoria. His replacement Brad Hodge produced a test double-century and it seemed his days were numbered.
But ironically, Hodge was mystifyingly left out of the touring party to South Africa in early 2006. Just as with Dean Jones 14 years earlier, Martyn was the replacement. There was hardly an explanation as to Martyn’s return. The cynic would say Martyn’s popularity with the captain could well have been the only reason. But again he confounded his critics. He made an important half-century in Durban to help seal the two-nil result.
But his finest hour, arguably in test cricket, came once more at the Wanderers. Australia, a man down after Langer was badly concussed in the first innings was asked to chase 292 in the fourth innings on a very difficult surface at ‘the Bullring’. Dead rubber or not, it was a chance at redemption for Ponting’s side, who had failed at a similar number at Edgbaston in 2005 where the same batsman minus Clarke and Katich had faltered and the bowlers had got them within 2 runs.
Here the task was more difficult given Matthew Hayden fell for a duck, and Ponting after four hundreds in six hits departed with the total at 33. Martyn and stand-in opener Hussey combined for 165 in just over three hours. Martyn’s innings could best be described as controlled beauty. He timed the ball superbly and placed it exceptionally. Despite four majestic hundreds against high quality spin bowling in sub-continental cauldrons, his matador-like effort against one of the most experienced South African pace attacks ever assembled was to be his best in international cricket. Australia went to stumps on day four with just three wickets in hand, presuming Langer would not bat, Martyn seven short of his 13th test hundred, still 44 short of an incredible victory.
Day five saw the magnificence and frustration of Damien Martyn personified in one over. He glided Shaun Pollock sublimely to the third man fence for his hundred, but fell in the same over trapped on the crease, Australia still requiring 34.
But take out Martyn’s hundred and they lose easily. Brett Lee and Michael Kasprowicz exorcised some demons of their own and Australia won their fifth straight test match laying the foundation for a record equalling 16 straight.
Remarkably Martyn would only play seven more innings in test cricket, each as carefree as the next. He walked away two tests into the Ashes whitewash, without so much as telling his teammates. He was present at the SCG for the five-nil triumph and the exit of three compatriots, but the only proof is a photo in the privacy of the dressing rooms.
Whatever one thinks of Damien Martyn the character, you can never question the player.
He was master of the Wanderers, ‘the Bullring’s’ finest matador.
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