Rob Quiney

Rob Quiney is one of the several Australians who took the traditional route to top-level cricket, by performing at the grade-level and grinding his way up to the top. However, his introduction to first-class cricket was the “baptism by fire” to beat all others.

In October 2005, a 23-year-old Quiney was handed a debut against a World XI bowling attack consisting of Shoaib Akhtar, Muttiah Muralitharan, Shaun Pollock, Makhaya Ntini and Daniel Vettori. However, he managed to avoid being dismissed by this stellar line-up and comically ended up running himself out for 3.

He continued to deliver some stellar performances in domestic, most notably, his 89 off 57 balls against New South Wales, where he countered Brett Lee’s barrage of short balls with some agile footwork and excellent ability to hook and pull against express pace.

A tall, well-built man with strong fore-arms, Quiney is quick on his feet and has a compact technique with the correct fundamental game to go with his extravagant stroke-play. He keeps a still head, leaves well outside off, defends extremely well and likes to play within the V. However, his attacking stroke-play is eye-catching and his adaptability to different formats had placed him at the forefront to replace Ricky Ponting at the number 3 spot after his retirement.

Quiney continued to impress in domestic cricket, especially in the shorter formats of the game. However, in the 2010/11 season of the Sheffield Shield, he was second in the run-charts with 724 runs at 42.58 with 4 fifties and 2 hundreds. In the following season, he managed to better that, and stood second on the run-charts with an unprecedented 938 runs at 49.36 with 3 hundreds. With these astonishingly strong numbers in Shield cricket, Quiney shocked everyone by performing equally well in all formats of the game.

On the basis of his consistent performances for Victoria, Quiney was named the domestic player of the year in 2011, and had performed well enough for the selectors to sit up and take notice of his performances. At long last, he earned the Baggy Green against the Proteas at the Gabba. Things, however, started to go downhill from there. Quiney had an inauspicious debut, scoring just 9 against the potent South African bowling, and fared even worse on his second outing, bagging an unenviable pair in the Adelaide Test.

Quiney would never play another Test match for Australia, and retired from first-class cricket in August 2017 when Victoria refused to renew his contract after a string of poor seasons. He wasn’t one of those players who fell by the way-side after an exciting start because of lack of dedication or focus. Rather, he was one of those who didn’t have the necessary strokes of luck; who was on the fringes of the Australian side at the wrong time, when there was a more established player occupying his spot.

Nevertheless, Quiney continues to perform in the shorter format of the game. He earned his first contract with the Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League in 2009. He also continues to play in the Australian franchise-based T20 league, the Big Bash. He was one of the marquee players for the Melbourne Stars, who have stuck with him, and he has relayed their faith in kind, scoring 721 runs in 35 games over 6 seasons. Quiney had a particularly good BBL 06, with 227 runs in 7 matches at 32.43, striking at stunning rate of 169.40 runs per hundred balls. He will continue to be a vital cog in the Stars’ line-up for the 7th edition of the BBL.

By Rishi Roy

As of December 2017