Colin Miller (cricketer)

Colin Reid Miller (born 6 February 1964, Footscray, Victoria) is a former Australian cricketer who played 18 Tests for Australia between 1998 and 2001.

Miller was a bowler capable of performing effectively either as a right arm fast-medium or offbreak bowler and achieved a Test average of 26.15. A tailend batsman who made three fifties in 126 first-class matches, he is particularly remembered for appearing with his hair dyed blue in a Test match against West Indies in 2001.

Playing career

He played two games for Victoria in 1985-86, but unable to command a regular place in the state team he moved to South Australia, where he played from 1988-89 to 1991-92. He then moved to Tasmania, where he played from 1992-93 to 1999-2000, before returning to Victoria for 2000-01 and 2001-02. In the 1997-98 season he took 70 wickets at 24.98,^[2] including his best innings figures of 7 for 49, when he bowled unchanged throughout Victoria's second innings.^[3]

Miller began as a right-arm fast-medium bowler, but changed to right-arm offbreak spin after an ankle injury. He mixed both styles with considerable success, and was a surprise addition to the Australian Test team at the age of 34, being able to act both as the second spin bowler and the third pace bowler. He played Test cricket principally as an off-spinner, and took 69 wickets at an average of 26.15. His best innings and match figures came in the Third Test against West Indies in Adelaide in 2000-01, when he took 5 for 81 and 5 for 32.^[4] He won the award for the Australian Test Player of the Year in 2001.

He toured England with Australia A in 1998, then toured Pakistan with the senior Australian side in 1998-99, making his Test debut. He also toured West Indies, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, New Zealand, India and England with the Test team.

He played with blue hair in a test match against the West Indies in 2001. His hair apparently^[5] made West Indies captain Courtney Walsh laugh.

He retired from first-class cricket in 2002.

Miller played for Rawtenstall in the Lancashire League in 1990 and 1991, finishing 1990 with 1078 runs and 100 wickets^[6] and 1991 with 780 runs and 108 wickets.^[7] In 1997 and 1998 (European) summers Miller played in Dutch Netherlands competition for Red and White (HCC Rood en Wit) and apart from taking many wickets was also very successful with the bat.

Coaching career

He coached the Katandra Cricket Club in the Shepparton Cricket Association in 2004-05. he was short listed for the job of Bangladesh's head coach post 2007 World Cup but he ruled out of it at last moment.

In 2013, USACA chief executive Darren Beazley announced Miller as a USACA ambassador for cricket. In 2004, he was one of several former international cricketers to sign up and play in Pro Cricket, a Twenty20 domestic professional league in the USA that folded after one season.

As he currently resides in Las Vegas and it is hoped it will be possible for the USACA to arrange for Miller's involvement in some of the organisation's regional development plans on the west coast.

Statistics

Miller's Test career batting performance.

References

External links

• Cricinfo article on Colin Miller
• Colin Miller at Cricket Archive