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Full name Beau Casson
Born December 7, 1982, Subiaco, Perth, Western Australia
Current age 25 years 306 days
Major teams Australia, New South Wales, Western Australia
Nickname Buzz
Playing role Bowler
Batting style Right-hand bat
Bowling style Slow left-arm chinaman
Height 1.78 m

Batting and fielding averages

Mat

Inns

Runs

Ave

100

Tests

10.00

22.72

First-class

1274

23.59

3554

35.84

List A

7.83

53.40

Twenty20

Bowling averages

Mat

Inns

Balls

Runs

Wkts

BBI

BBM

Ave

Econ

Tests

192

129

3/86

3/129

43.00

4.03

64.0

First-class

7514

4455

110

6/64

40.50

3.55

68.3

List A

618

509

4/31

28.27

4.94

34.3

Twenty20

1/20

52.00

7.42

42.0

Career statistics

Only Test

West Indies v Australia at Bridgetown, Jun 12-16, 2008 scorecard

Test statistics

First-class debut

2002/03

Last First-class

India A v Australia A at Bangalore, Sep 3-5, 2008 scorecard

List A debut

2002/03

Last List A

New South Wales v Victoria at Sydney, Feb 20, 2008 scorecard

Twenty20 debut

South Australia v Western Australia at Adelaide, Jan 10, 2006 scorecard

Last Twenty20

New South Wales v Western Australia at Sydney, Jan 10, 2008 scorecard

After battling injuries, poor form and switching states in the past few years, the planets finally aligned for Beau Casson in 2007-08. Following a season he would rather forget, Casson became New South Wales' first-choice spinner for much of the summer as Stuart MacGill spent time in the Australia team and then recovered from surgery. Most spectacularly, Casson then stood in when MacGill decided to retire mid-series in the West Indies. Becoming the country's 401st Test player, Casson went wicket-less during a tough initiation in the first innings, but returned to take 3 for 86 and help bowl Australia to victory.

By that stage he already had a Cricket Australia contract following his useful returns for New South Wales. Casson relished the extra responsibility without MacGill and used the helpful SCG conditions to collect 29 Pura Cup wickets at 35.13, while he was a valuable lower-order batsman with 485 runs at 60.62. He made 89 and grabbed four wickets in the state's final triumph to convince the national selectors of his worth. Not even the most optimistic Casson fan could have predicted the honours at the start of the season. He was coming off a disappointing 2006-07 when he managed only seven wickets at 72 from seven Pura Cup games, and was light years behind MacGill, Brad Hogg, Dan Cullen and Cullen Bailey in the slow-bowling pecking order. However, Hogg's retirement and the failure of Bailey and Cullen to impress at state level left the selectors looking to the future and initially Casson was preferred as a long-term option ahead of Victoria's Bryce McGain. Strangely, the No. 1 ranking didn't last long and McGain and Jason Krejza went to India instead of Casson.

A left-arm wrist-spinner capable of big turn and with a hard-to-pick wrong'un, Casson moved to Sydney after 2005-06 as he searched for a way to halt his inflating bowling average. However, a shoulder injury hampered him in his first summer away from Perth and although he tried to push through, a reconstruction was required at the end of the season. Casson, who was desperate to make the SCG his home, walked out on Western Australia - they didn't want him to go - after his eight outings for them in 2005-06 yielded 17 wickets at 54.23. He had burst into the Warriors' scene with ten wickets against South Australia in his second first-class appearance in 2002-03, and a season later earned another Man of the Match prize with eight against Queensland. Born with a heart problem, Casson is regularly monitored and has an adjusted training regime, but the disease has not troubled his cricket. A part of the Australia Under-19 side that won the World Cup in 2002, he has also attended the Academy.
Cricinfo staff September 2008