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Full name Michael Jonathon Slater
Born February 21, 1970, Wagga Wagga, New South Wales
Current age 38 years 86 days
Major teams Australia,Derbyshire,New South Wales
Batting style Right-hand bat
Bowling style Right-arm medium
Other Commentator
Batting and fielding averages
Mat
Inns
NO
Runs
HS
Ave
BF
SR
100
50
4s
6s
Ct
St
Tests
74
131
7
5312
219
42.83
9967
53.29
14
21
598
30
33
0
ODIs
42
42
1
987
73
24.07
1634
60.40
0
9
95
2
9
0
First-class
216
384
19
14912
221
40.85
36
69
116
0
List A
135
131
3
3395
115
26.52
2
27
31
0
Bowling averages
Mat
Inns
Balls
Runs
Wkts
BBI
BBM
Ave
Econ
SR
4w
5w
10
Tests
74
3
25
10
1
1/4
1/4
10.00
2.40
25.0
0
0
0
ODIs
42
2
12
11
0
-
-
-
5.50
-
0
0
0
First-class
216
133
113
3
1/4
37.66
5.09
44.3
0
0
List A
135
12
11
0
-
-
-
5.50
-
0
0
0
Career statistics
Test debut
England v Australia at Manchester, Jun 3-7, 1993 scorecard
Last Test
England v Australia at Leeds, Aug 16-20, 2001 scorecard
Test statistics
ODI debut
Australia v South Africa at Melbourne, Dec 9, 1993 scorecard
Last ODI
England v Australia at The Oval, May 24, 1997 scorecard
ODI statistics
First-class span
1991/92 - 2003/04
List A span
1992/93 - 2003/04
Profile
A combative and wholehearted cricketer, Michael Slater has played many vital innings for New South Wales and as an Australia opener with his adventurous brand of strokeplay.
A product of Wagga Wagga, his was a meteoric rise. Following a stint at the Australian Cricket Academy, he made rapid strides, turning a place in the New South Wales Second XI at the start of the 1992-93 season into a berth in Australia's 1993 Ashes squad by the end of that summer. After notching a half-century in the opening match of that series - alongside fellow New South Welshman, Mark Taylor - and complementing it with a brilliant century in the following encounter at Lord's, he soon became a regular in his nation's Test team.
Aside from the period between October 1996 and March 1998, Slater occupied a position at the top of the Australian Test batting line-up for close to a decade. Amid a golden run of success for the team as a whole, individual highlights have included his 219 against Sri Lanka in Perth in 1995-96; and his brilliant home series against New Zealand in 1993-94 (which netted him 305 runs at 76.25) and England (623 runs at 62.30) in 1994-95. His signature trait of kissing his helmet whenever he reached three figures was seen 14 times, and he made scores in the nineties on a record-breaking nine occasions. He also played in each of the 16 matches between late 1999 and early 2001 which delivered the then Australian team the greatest run of consecutive victories in the history of Test cricket.
Ironically, Slater's aggressive approach didn't translated to similar results in one-day cricket. He produced a spectacular 73 on his one-day international debut but did not reach such heights again and did not played in an international limited-overs match after 1997.
After a prolonged form slump, Slater was dropped from the Australian Test side in August 2001 for the fifth Ashes Test. The following Australian summer - and under intense media scrutiny of both his professional and personal life - Slater then struggled to maintain a place in the New South Wales side. He continued to plug away, but as his career as a commentator took off, so his form with the bat, and appetite for the game, declined. He suffered a debilitating illness during the 2003-04 summer and announced his retirement in June 2004.
John Polack (June 2004)
