Gary Crocker got to international cricket by pure luck. It's not that he wasn't skilled, he was infact a genuine all rounder on potential but never really translated that into numbers even in domestic cricket. A southpaw who bowled left-arm pace, Crocker still made it to Zimbabwe's first ever Test match as a result of a last-minute injury to Ali Shah. The management needed a like-to-like replacement and that gave Crocker an unexpected opportunity for which he had to travel close to 275 miles overnight to make it to the venue in time. Subsequently, he only played in a handful of international matches with extremely poor numbers. However, his ODI debut did show glimpes of his capability - a fifty and a four-fer against a strong Indian side. That proved to be an aberration in his otherwise underwhelming career.

Written by Hariprasad Sadanandan