Michael Bevan is a Left-Handed Cricket Batsman (LHB) and a Slow Left Arm Chinaman (SLC) bowler, born 8 May 1970 in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT).
The major teams he has played for are: South Australia, NSW, Yorkshire, Sussex, Leicestershire and of course Australia.
He has been a rock in the Australian middle order since the mid nineties particularly in the ODI squad. As well as being a fine fieldsman, Michael Bevan is one of Australia's most exciting and skilful strokeplayers. A left hander who places a higher price on his wicket than most batsmen, he is also a lightning-fast runner between the wickets with an amazing capacity to scamper ones and twos successfully.
Born in Canberra, Bevan made his first-class debut in 1989-90 in South Australian colours (hitting a thrilling century in his very first innings) before the completion of a 12-month stint at the Australian Cricket Academy led to a move back to New South Wales the following year. It was in Sydney that he began to make his greatest strides as a player, quickly assuming a regular middle order berth in the then strongest state team in the country and - aside from a poor run in 1992-93 which resulted in a brief omission from the ranks - using it as a launching pad from which he gained an Australian cap for the first time in 1993-94.
Variously dubbed the world's best limited-overs batsman, it is for his uncanny knack of being able to work the ball into even the narrowest of gaps in the field; to see many innings through to their conclusion without losing his wicket; and to accumulate runs with a minimum of fuss, for which he has essentially become best known. His left-arm wrist spinners, although rarely seen in recent years, proved extremely difficult to pick and even saw him briefly assume a batting all-rounder role in the Australian Test side in the mid-1990s.
An integral member of the Australian one-day team for a considerable time now, he was a part of the country's victorious World Cup sides in 1999 and 2003 and has been a key factor behind innumerable international wins. He will long be remembered, in particular, for his pair of sensational match-winning innings against West Indies at Sydney in 1996 and New Zealand at Melbourne in 2002. Bevan also enjoyed a promising start to his Test career but the development of a perception that he has a weakness against well-directed short-pitched bowling has ensured that he has made far less appearances in that arena.
