The marvellous Andy Bichel

[Donny]

Yesterday, Andy Bichel came to the crease with Essex wobbling on 6/97. When he departed, the score was 7/258. Bic scored 102, his 7th. first class century. He shared a 161 run partnership with James Middlebrook who was 108 n.o. at stumps. He played 19 Tests and 67 ODIs for Australia but last played at the top level over 3 years ago. He'll be 37 in August. Bic has always been known as a great team man and one of the fittest cricketers going round. He took 45 wickets @ 24.66 for Queensland during the last Pura Cup season, finishing second to Ben Hilfenhaus on the bowlers' aggregate list and was named the Pura Cup Player of the Year for his double of 452 runs at 34.76 and 50 wickets at 26.69 in '05/'06. The final act of his summer was to seal Queensland the trophy by taking the last wicket of the final on his Gabba home ground. He's always been a handy contributer with the bat but, at top level, was always just short of true all rounder status. Apart from his many heroic deeds with Queensland, other fond memories for Bic will be dismissing Brian Lara seven times on the 2003 tour and starring in the 2003 ODI World Cup. In Australia's group match against England at Port Elizabeth he claimed 7 for 20 with a scintillating display of bowling before sharing a 73-run ninth-wicket partnership with Michael Bevan to secure a 'back from the dead' victory. Bic celebrates on the way to 7/20 against the Poms Well played Andrew John Bichel. :congrats:

[Cricketics]

still remember that fantastic p'ship between him and bevan in that wc 03 game against england.. and in same game then he ends up taking 7 wkts. he has been always a handy batsman..sux that he has been in an out from aussie national team...

[Ram]

Andy Bichel was dropped when he was still performing quite well. Aus have a long record of dropping players whom they thought werent adding value to the team , rather than just looking at them purely on performances. Ask Michael Bevan too...

[King]

I still can't understand how Aussies let Bichel go. He was a star for the Aussies in the 2003 world cup and he wasn't too bad against India in the 2003-04 series in Australia. This is one of the few mistakes that was committed after Ponting took over.

[Ram]

Ravi, How can you call that a mistake when Aus have won literally every single one-day competiton ( except the aberration in NZ ) since 2003. The australian selectors obviously felt that Bichel wasnt adding enough value to the team to warrant a place. I guess a player can seal his place in the team in two ways. Play superbly so as to make him an automatic choice or perform just enough so that its difficult to drop him. It seems the 2nd option isnt available to Aus players. !

[Dhondy]

I do not say this in zest, Donny, but Bichel can walk into the Indian team today, even if you broke his left knee with Vengsarkar's dick, which I'd have great pleasure in detaching from it's owner. Admittedly, Bichel was consigned to the knacker-yard too early by the Aussie selectors, but the fact that he was selected well into his thirties itself is a testimony to how Australia values graft and bottle over effervescent talent. If only Indian selectors could be cogent enough to recognize that elusive quality in youngsters! Success at Test level has nothing to do with talent. OK, that may be an overstatement, but it has a heckuva lot more to do with attitude and sheer cussedness than just talent. You got to pick out the characters quite early in their career and stand by them. Sad cases like VRV Singh and Munaf Patel are examples of what is wrong with Indian cricket. A bit of talent maybe, in Munaf's case quite a bit, but absolutely no heart to go with it. These guys will never make it at international level. On the other hand, I see a lot of Bichel in Sreesanth. Pathan has it, as does Sehwag, and look how they have been confined to the scrap heap by our wise old tossers. I can prove that Kaif had it. He's almost lost to Indian cricket. One other fella, called Badrinath, wasn't even given a chance.

[Predator_05]

Bichel had little talent, but more than made up for it with his effort. Such a committed cricketer - a true professional. He would bowl all day if you asked him to. His best ever performance in test cricket was undoubtedly on the '03 tour of WI immediately after the World Cup triumph. On those lifeless pitches where the batsmen made merry and Ponting scored one ton after another (claiming that he only had 5 mins of net practice) Bichel would always roar in and bowl one good spell after another. He didn't bowl as many overs or took as many wickets because AUS played 5 man bowling attacks, but he was always there to break up partnerships and dismiss the best batsmen. He nailed Brian Lara more times than any other Aussie bowler on that tour, IIRC.

[King]

Ravi, How can you call that a mistake when Aus have won literally every single one-day competiton ( except the aberration in NZ ) since 2003. The australian selectors obviously felt that Bichel wasnt adding enough value to the team to warrant a place. I guess a player can seal his place in the team in two ways. Play superbly so as to make him an automatic choice or perform just enough so that its difficult to drop him. It seems the 2nd option isnt available to Aus players. !

Not in terms of results but Bichel was a good enough player to figure in both ODIs and test matches. Not that he was doing too badly either. As for results there has been no odd effect whatsoever but I thought Bichel deserved more chances than he got.

[Gambit]

A bowler with a great heart and attitude! IIRC he made his debut for OZ in 1997 in the C&U series against Pak and WI. Antony Stuart(whatever happened to him?!) outperformed him with a hattrick against Pak but Bichel didn't give up and came strongly back in 2001.

[Donny]

Yesterday, in a semi final of the Friends Provident Trophy, Essex was copping it from the Durham attack on a bowlers' paradise. Andy Bichel (24) batted at #4 and was the only batsman of the top 8 to make double figures as Essex crashed to be all out for 71. Bic wasn't finished. He took a wicket in his first over and had 3/5 after 3. He finished with 4/22 from 7 overs. However, an equally good performance by Liam Plunkett got Durham home. He took 4/15 (4.1 overs) and was 30 n.o. after it looked like Essex was going to pull off a miracle win. At one stage, Durham was 7/38. Hampshire accounted for Warwickshire in the other semi. Stuart Clark took 3/38 and Warney, 2/37.

[Lurker]

A very honest trier and a player who always gave 100% for Australia. Would have surely played lot more cricket had he be born in a different country. I suppose his best moment was in 2003 WC when he ran over Poms with 7 for very little. And then when Australia were struggling(about 130 odds for 7-8 wickets chasing 200) he made a solid 30 something and secured victory for Australia alongside Michael Bevan. I wonder if any single player has had a better all-round performance than Bichel in that game, other than perhaps Gary Gilmour in 1975 WSC semis where he took 6 for very little and then scored 28 in a very low scoring game. There have been quite a few occassions when Bichel and Bevan rescued Australia. If I had to fathom a guess I would say these batted together in about half-dozen Aussie wins atleast, most of the times from the brink. xxx

[Ram]

I dont fault Bichel's commitment as a bowler , but as a batsman he was very limited. I dont remember too many occasions where he made a worthwhil contribution with the bat for Australia, other than that game against Eng. And when i checked the stats, he had scored ONLY 471 runs in his entire ODI career, with just a single 50.

[Donny]

Hey fellas, I'm talking about the Andy Bichel of now - the almost 37 y.o. Andy Bichel. I did put some background history in the first post but I brought his name up more to do with his longevity in the game and present form.

[Donny]

Well, he's at it again. Essex was 6/224 against Nottinghamshire when their #8, Andy Bichel, came to the wicket to join James Foster. 180 runs later, he's still there. Foster is 116* and Bic is 91* from 99 balls.:hic:

[Rahul]

^^ dayum!! very nice OP, donny. keep them coming! Bic has been one of my fav--for reasons Dhondy has already enumerated.

[Donny]

He took it to 148 (152 balls) and his partnership with Foster ended on 254.

[Donny]

Bic took 6/63 against Somerset today, including Justin Langer (24) and Cam White (1) as Somerset was bundled out for 153.

[Gambit]

County cricket for Aussies is like a walk in the park!

[Donny]

Yes. Alfie & Cam thought so too - until this match. :wink_smile:

[Mr. Wicket]

Bichel is a ****ing legend, and a far better all rounder than the softcock Watson usurping the slot right now. This man will continue to run in and hit the deck hard, and will probably still find it in him to gut it out in a tough situation and grind runs, or nip out key wickets at vital periods, regardless of his age, the situation or anything else. I've seen few other cricketers with his level of heart and commitment. Here's hoping the season continues this way, and that he can take this form into the Shield next season for QLD (except when NSW are concerned, of course).