De Grandhomme retires from international cricket

[Zinzan]

Never liked him at all

I had noticed you never opined on his height.

 

[SteveNZ]

The ultimate entertainer. The ultimate rocks and diamonds man. If he was a mathematician, he'd go from solving pi to 400 digits to failing to nail his 2x tables in the same morning. If he was a scientist, he'd be splitting the atom one minute, blowing up the lab the next. Perfectly illustrated in what was his final Test, at Lord's this year, where he scored a brilliantly executed 40 odd not out from huge trouble, then was run out first ball from slip next innings.

I was lucky enough to (sort of) to watch his career from 2004, when he came over from Zimbabwe as a highly-touted 18 year old. He didn't score any runs, didn't take any wickets and never really spoke a word, and went home from which I thought we'd never see him again. I would've bet any bodily organ you'd care to take that he'd never play for Auckland B, let alone for his adopted country eventually. He almost quit the game to become a sparky around 2013 or so as well, so it was a bit of an unexpected career and a bloody entertaining one.

Highlights for me were things like pumping Shane Bond over the main stand at EPOO in the early T20 days, a double hundred in a national club one-day game from 50-5 or so, the match-turning knocks like SA & Pakistan in the World Cup and his piss-taking T20 domestic innings' last season, where as someone said he turned full Jesse Ryder 'I can hit sixes like I'm playing 5 year olds' piss-taking mode.

 

[kevinw]

It was torturous watching him pin Root down in that WC final.

 

[slippy888]

One of New Zealand best imports

 

[ashley bach]

It was torturous watching him pin Root down in that WC final.

Seriously it was 10x more torturous watching him bat earlier in the day. He looked like he was batting with a broomstick it was that awful.
Immediately thought he'll never get another international ton but being CDG he surprised and got 1 last one.
Fun player to have watched over the years, was never super consistent in any department but generally chipped in for the team somehow.

 

[Immenso]

I think he was really under-rated and/or underappreciated by plenty of the non-anorak NZ (test) cricket fans for a few years when Southee, Boult, Wagner were gobbling all the wickets. A vital cog in the machine until Jamieson's wonder-year.

Such a contrast with the old-school percentage cricket of his bowling getting maximum output from his talents, compared to the opposite with his batting.

Plus, at times, a decent contributor to an excellent catching cordon throughout the time of his career. I say "at times" due to sometimes not being in the cordon due to other excellent options, not because at times he wasn't good.

 

[Athlai]

I never rated him. I thought he was ridiculously fortunate for a lot of his career though he was undeniably one of the cleanest hitters to play the game when he was on fire.

ATG meme player

 

[Bahnz]

I never rated him. I thought he was ridiculously fortunate for a lot of his career though he was undeniably one of the cleanest hitters to play the game when he was on fire.

ATG meme player

He undoubtedly benefitted from being exactly what a very good NZ team needed to round out the side. The team winning more often than not meant that people could just roll their eyes and chuckle whenever he did something breathtakingly stupid. Had he come along a decade earlier I tend to think he would've gone about as well as Grant Elliot did in his brief test career.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Does anyone else think that Grant Elliott and Daryl Mitchell are the same guy

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Interesting stat:
CDG is one of only 4 players to average over 35 in tests with a strike rate of 80+ (minimum 15 innings). The others are Sehwag, Gilchrist, and Afridi.

 

[Chewie]

Rereading the Pakistan tour thread when he made his test debut is amusing

 

[Fuller Pilch]

He undoubtedly benefitted from being exactly what a very good NZ team needed to round out the side. The team winning more often than not meant that people could just roll their eyes and chuckle whenever he did something breathtakingly stupid. Had he come along a decade earlier I tend to think he would've gone about as well as Grant Elliot did in his brief test career.

Ironically if he had come along earlier he wouldn't have made the team. Although the side was much weaker than the recent one, the 6-7-8 of Oram, McCullum, Vettori was world class. Likewise CDG wouldn't have made the side prior to that when Cairns was the allrounder and the batting lineup contained handy seamers in Astle, McMillan, and Styris. CDG came along at the right time (Anderson injured and surprisingly picked ahead of Neesham) and made the spot his own.

 

[thierry henry]

In all seriousness I really didn't like him (an emotive, irrational response) but more objectively speaking I was probably biased against his initial test selection because of the history of him being erroneously seen as a white ball option. I always said it was ridiculous that he was in the frame for the ODI or T20 sides and the only format he was ok at was 4-day cricket. By the time 2016/17 rolled around I was so used to perceiving him as a hack who shouldn't be in the frame for the white ball sides, that I was unable to adjust my perceptions when he was picked out of nowhere for the test side.

He always seemed to be a guy the selectors were "looking at" when he had done nothing to deserve it - so by the time he actually became a regular, I was already very biased against him.

From memory most of us probably wanted Neesham in the team back in 16/17 - younger, bowled quicker, already had international experience, had scored test centuries. CDG was already 30 and basically an ageing domestic hack who had never even set that level alight. On reflection, Neesham would never have had the skill to perform CDG's role with the ball, and actually turned out to be even more of a meme T20 slogger than CDG. I have to admit it was a selectorial masterstroke.

 

[Flem274*]

All the way back in 2012 someone (may have been Steve even) said it's clearly a selection where the coaches back themselves to get him to concentrate at the top level more than the lower level could.

The talent was always there. Unlike a lot of balanced allrounders his batting technique is actually very good (except against leg spin), even his defense. He was a touch player who happened to have stupid amounts of power, so anything that beat the infield was gone.

Shot selection was always the problem. If he had wanted to go full stonewaller he would have been a top order batsman for NZ imo, but that was the antithesis of CdG.

I will never forget the physical pain on his face when he was leaving and padding back 135kph Englishmen during that 70 odd at Hagley because we were in deep trouble. Probably my favourite knock of his because of how funny it was, made better by Simon Doull death riding him on comms as a useless slogger while he laboriously passed up another stuart broad offering.

 

[thierry henry]

Also I distinctly recall that before he played international cricket he was described as bowling "a deceptively heavy ball". Turns out he bowled an unusually light ball.

 

[Mike5181]

All the way back in 2012 someone (may have been Steve even) said it's clearly a selection where the coaches back themselves to get him to concentrate at the top level more than the lower level could.

The talent was always there. Unlike a lot of balanced allrounders his batting technique is actually very good (except against leg spin), even his defense. He was a touch player who happened to have stupid amounts of power, so anything that beat the infield was gone.

Shot selection was always the problem. If he had wanted to go full stonewaller he would have been a top order batsman for NZ imo, but that was the antithesis of CdG.

I will never forget the physical pain on his face when he was leaving and padding back 135kph Englishmen during that 70 odd at Hagley because we were in deep trouble. Probably my favourite knock of his because of how funny it was, made better by Simon Doull death riding him on comms as a useless slogger while he laboriously passed up another stuart broad offering.

They did that quite a bit during his career. McCullum was laughing about him one time, and I was like, dude, he has the same test average as you + he bowls.

 

[Howsie]

He was definitely lucky to play in this New Zealand team when he did. No way he averages what he did with the bat and ball if he was playing with 08-12 test team for example

Did his job well though, can’t argue with that.

Little bit sad as a massive Anderson fan that de Grandhomme debuted the same year Corey played his last test. His numbers are what I expected from him going back 10-12 years. Such a waste of talent

 

[SteveNZ]

All the way back in 2012 someone (may have been Steve even) said it's clearly a selection where the coaches back themselves to get him to concentrate at the top level more than the lower level could.

The talent was always there. Unlike a lot of balanced allrounders his batting technique is actually very good (except against leg spin), even his defense. He was a touch player who happened to have stupid amounts of power, so anything that beat the infield was gone.

Shot selection was always the problem. If he had wanted to go full stonewaller he would have been a top order batsman for NZ imo, but that was the antithesis of CdG.

I will never forget the physical pain on his face when he was leaving and padding back 135kph Englishmen during that 70 odd at Hagley because we were in deep trouble. Probably my favourite knock of his because of how funny it was, made better by Simon Doull death riding him on comms as a useless slogger while he laboriously passed up another stuart broad offering.

I think John Wright might've said that, and I stole it.

You're right, his technique has always been very, very good. He didn't have any technical deficiencies that were found at Test level, he'd only get himself out with lack of concentration or brain melts. He saw the ball crazy early, he was well known on the circuit as someone who would never be troubled by pace.

Stonewaller was never going to be him, his personality just doesn't fit it. Hits a golf ball 300m without much planning or forethought, similar to hitting a cricket ball 100m.

 

[mr_mister]

Had no idea he was so old lol

Probably the first memorable player to have their international debut and retirement in the time frame when I got back into enjoying cricket and made my account here, 2015

 

[jcas0167]

Hopefully he gets another outing or two for Auckland / Aces on EPOO. Always enjoy his nonchalant 7-iron chips that end up on the railway end bank for 6.

I remember early in his career he did one at the Basin and it went through a window in the cricket museum. Neesham and other Auckland players were looking out laughing. Incredibly gifted player who aside from his power was also technically very sound. Funnily enough, despite his power hitting it seemed test cricket was his strongest format. His bowling was surprisingly effective too, economical and seemed to get just enough movement to pick up regular wickets. And he had a relaxed uncomplicated style that made it look like he was just playing a social game.