Wade Seccombe

For someone who was forced to wait until he was close to the age of twenty-eight before becoming a first-class wicketkeeper in his own right, Queensland's Wade Seccombe is a remarkably good player. Fraught by the gloveman's enduring curse of having to shuffle in and out of teams to accommodate a more senior 'keeper, Seccombe made his debut in 1992-93 but merely assumed the mantle of understudy to Ian Healy right up until the veteran international player announced his retirement from the game just prior to the 1999-2000 domestic season. Technically, he is an outstanding wicketkeeper. He operates with the graceful, agile movement that distinguishes most elite glovemen from their peers and is equally at home (notwithstanding the predominance of pacemen in his native state) on the end of fast and slow bowling. With the bat, he is a confident and adaptable performer; he has a particular liking for playing shots square of the wicket and can be very attacking, yet also has a sound technique and has played some fine defensive innings at different times. To attest to Seccombe's talents, it is worth considering that he has already assembled a list of impressive achievements in the game: he was chosen to be an inductee of the Australian Cricket Academy in 1993; has been a member of all four of Queensland's winning Sheffield Shield/Pura Cup sides; has played in each of two teams to have won Mercantile Mutual Cups; and, in his first full season no less, equalled Rodney Marsh's twenty-four year old record for the most number of dismissals effected by a wicketkeeper in an Australian domestic summer. (John Polack, April 2001)

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