The praise lavished on his decision to boycott Zimbabwe last year because of moral concerns continued an unwelcome pattern in the life of Stuart MacGill: he has long generated headlines for being out of the Australian team rather than for his performances in it. An old-fashioned operator with a gargantuan legbreak and majestic wrong’un, MacGill has the best strike-rate and worst luck of any modern spin bowler. His misfortune has been to play alongside Shane Warne in an age when Australia, the land of Grimmett and O’Reilly, have paradoxically frowned on the concept of fielding two wrist-spinners at once. After showing they could work in tandem with 13 wickets against Pakistan at Sydney in January, MacGill hoped - almost pleaded - for more double-act opportunities. He has stayed philosophical throughout, eagerly running in and invariably running amok in Warne’s periodic absences. He bewitched 53 wickets in 11 Tests during Warne’s 12-month drugs ban in 2003-04, yet was maligned for bowling one boundary-ball per over; a shade unfairly, considering that was the standard modus operandi for all leggies pre-Warne. A batting duffer and increasingly feckless fielder, he has played only three one-day internationals despite collecting his domestic scalps at a stupefying rate of one every 27 balls. Unusually for a bowler, MacGill seldom smiles upon taking a wicket. Instead he lets out a roar of accomplishment. "People ask me why I don’t smile - it’s because it’s really hard," he explained in 2003-04. "Test cricket’s hard ... I’ll take a wicket and there’ll be an explosion of emotion." It is one of MacGill’s many quirks. He is a wine connoisseur who only recently learned to enjoy the taste of beer, and he once read 24 novels on a tour of Pakistan. The son and grandson of West Australian state players, he socialises with friends who aren’t cricketers and is often portrayed as a thinker, a misfit, the odd man out. It is something he plays down - although, tellingly, no other Australian cricketer felt compelled by their conscience to stand out of touring Zimbabwe.

<a href="http://fumbbl.com/FUMBBL.php?page=player&op=view&player_id=1872145&displaymessage=Bio%20Changed.">EATEN BY BRETT LEE!</a>