Jason Krejza

In Test cricket, there are very few bowlers who have taken eight or more wickets in an innings. Jason Krejza is one of them. After a poor first outing for an Australian touring team, in which he gave up 199 runs in 31 overs, Krejza's chances of playing a Test on the 2008-09 tour of India seemed bleak. But when he was finally picked ahead of Stuart Clark for the deciding Test in Nagpur, Krejza collected staggering debut innings figures of 8 for 215. It was a bittersweet debut, however, as Krejza also conceded more runs than anyone in their maiden Test performance. He went on to finish with 12 victims for the game; of Australian players only Bob Massie ended his debut Test with better figures.

It was a brilliant way for Krejza to round out a 12-month period that had started in ignominy. A year before his Test call-up, Krejza was caught drink-driving and speeding, and lost his licence for seven months. Tasmania imposed their own punishment on him - he was suspended from their pre-season training and banned from alcohol for the whole summer. He rewarded the state with a solid, if not spectacular, Pura Cup season that brought him 18 wickets at 47.11 from seven games. That was enough for an Australia A call-up and then the higher honour as the national selectors scoured the country for the next Test spinner, and it also justified Krejza's decision to head south during 2006-07. He had squeezed out of a tight queue of New South Wales slow bowlers and transferred to Tasmania, where the line was much shorter. Stuck behind Stuart MacGill with the Blues' new imports, Nathan Hauritz and Beau Casson, Krejza had three productive one-day outings before his mid-season departure but his lack of first-class action was the sealer. In Tasmania it was the other way around; Xavier Doherty was the established one-day spinner but Krejza was given Pura Cup opportunities.

An offspinner who is willing to flight the ball and can extract decent turn, Krejza's debut season at New South Wales raised eyebrows as he picked up Michael Bevan, a more than handy player of spin who spent years at the SCG, three times. The summer ended with nine Pura Cup matches and 12 wickets. The following campaign was less productive as Steve O'Keefe and Aaron O'Brien were also employed, before Hauritz and Casson swelled the stocks further. Until he burst onto the Test scene, Krejza did not have a first-class five-wicket haul to his name but his resume did include solid batting - he has four first-class half-centuries. Krejza spends his time away from the game singing and playing guitar, and he has an interesting family history; his father is a footballer from Czechoslovakia and his mother is from Poland.
Cricinfo staff November 2008