Shaun Graf

Shaun Francis Graf (born 19 May 1957 in Somerville, Victoria, Australia) is a former Australian cricketer who played 11 One Day Internationals (ODIs) for Australia in the early 1980s as an allrounder. He represented Western Australia as well as his native Victoria in the Sheffield Shield and also played county cricket for Hampshire.

Biography

Educated at St Bede's College, Graf made his grade debut at the age of 19 for St Kilda Cricket Club as an all-rounder, bowling right-arm medium fast and batting left-handed with an emphasis on driving. He made his first-class debut in 1979–80 for Victoria,^[1] and helped them to win the Sheffield Shield that season. His performances - including seven wickets against South Australia^[2] lead to a contract in 1980 with the Hampshire County Cricket Club. He performed disappointingly, only exceeding 50 in a first class game once.

His form was better in the Australian 1980/81 season and against Western Australia he scored 100 and took three wickets.^[3] Graf was named as 12th man in two Test matches that summer. He was also selected to make his ODI debut in November 1980 against New Zealand at the Adelaide Oval in which he made a duck and took 1/40.^[4] He played in nine of Australia's ten group matches in that season's triangular ODI tournament, but was omitted from the team for the finals series after scoring just 16 runs at an average of 3.20 with a top score of 7 despite being picked as an all-rounder batting at number seven or eight.^[5][6] He did manage to take eight wickets at 31.88 in the series, with three two wicket hauls.

He was not selected for the 1981 tour to England, but returned in the following Australian summer in the second and third matches of the series. He made his top score of eight against Pakistan at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, but after failing to take a wicket in that match, he conceded an expensive 56 runs in nine overs without success against the West Indies in the following match, and was dropped.^[7]

In 1983–84 he moved to Western Australia for one year, and was part of the winning Sheffield Shield team. He returned to Victoria the following season before retiring. In all, he played 55 matches, scoring 1,559 runs at an average of 25.14 with one century, and claimed 124 wickets at an average of 33.91 with a best bowling of 5/95. In Limited Overs matches, he averaged 25.22 with the bat and 25 with the ball. He became a Victorian selector in 1990–91 and became the cricket operations manager of the Victorian Cricket Association in 1995.

References

• Cashman, Franks, Maxwell, Sainsbury, Stoddart, Weaver, Webster (1997). The A-Z of Australian cricketers. Melbourne: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-550604-9.