Michael Beer

Michael “Frothy” Beer is the traditional wily left-arm orthodox bowler who rose through the ranks in traditional fashion, playing for his suburb’s cricket team in Malvern, Melbourne. His family had a prior affiliation with the club, with his father being part of the club's team of the century.

Despite being majorly successful in Victorian Premier League, with 100 wickets in two seasons, Beer’s precocious performances weren’t enough to make the cut into a settled Victorian first-class side. As a result of this, he made a move to Western Australia and was handed a contract by the Western Warriors, for whom he made his debut, ironically, against Victoria. In 2016/17, Beer played his first One-Day game in the Matador One-Day Cup, and immediately picked up a hat-trick, adding to his list of accolades in domestic cricket. He made his Shield debut in the 2010/11 season against his home team, Victoria, and snapped up 3 wickets in his first outing.

In the middle of his maiden Shield season, Beer had a stroke of luck as he hurriedly called up for the New Years’ Ashes Test after Shane Warne publicly lauded the left-arm spinner for his performance in the tour game against England. This seemed to be a hurried move in the aftermath of Australia’s innings loss at Adelaide, where the bowling line-up only managed 5 wickets in the match. Beer was left out for the 3rd Test at Perth, as the Aussies decided to go with an all-pace attack and won the Perth Test. He was left out of the 4th Test at Melbourne as well, which Australia lost and England retained the urn.

Beer was finally bestowed with the prized Baggy Green for the final Sydney Test, as Australia looked to salvage some pride by leveling the series after failing to regain the urn. However, Beer had an ordinary outing with the ball as he picked up just the one wicket, that of Paul Collingwood after being denied the prized scalp of Alastair Cook, who was in supreme form throughout the series, because of a no-ball. This turned out to be costly, as Cook went on to score 189 to lead England to a massive first-innings total of 644. Furthermore, Australia went on to lose the Test and conceded their first home Ashes series in 24 years. Beer went on to play one more Test almost 12 months after the forgettable debut, and opened the bowling in the 2nd Test against West Indies (perhaps because of the slow nature of the pitch and his ability to grip the Dukes ball better than the Kookaburra). He only managed two wickets in the match and was never picked again, even though he continued to impress in Shield cricket.

Beer has been one of the few players who have played all matches in a particular season of the Big Bash League, which he did in the 6th edition. He played the first three seasons for the Perth Scorchers and was traded by them with the Melbourne Stars. After moving to the Stars' line-up, he has been a vital cog in their line-up, picking up 40 wickets in 51 matches in the BBL over six seasons at a scarcely believable economy rate of 6.43. With his penchant for tight-bowling in conditions hardly favorable for spin, Beer will be a valuable asset to the Melbourne Stars in an era where consistent miserly bowling is viewed as a priceless virtue.

By Rishi Roy

As of December 2017