Michael Slater Michael Jonathon Slater (born 21 February 1970, Wagga Wagga, New South Wales) is a former Australian cricketer who played in 74 Tests and 42 ODIs from 1993 to 2001. Michael went to the Australian Cricket Academy before appearing for New South Wales in the 1991/92 Sheffield Shield season. He made fast progress to the Australian Test Team being selected for The Ashes tour to England in 1993. He made his first century in the Lords Test and celebrated by kissing the Australian Badge on his helmet. He was generally known for his swashbuckling style of play. Front foot pulls to reasonably full pitched balls were his specialty. Between 1993 and 2001, in 74 Test matches he scored 5,312 Test runs and 14 centuries at an average of 42. He opened the batting in Australia's unbeaten streak team between 1999 and 2001. He was very successful in Test with his aggressive approach, and surprisingly he was not successful in the shorter One Day International form of the game appearing 42 times with an average of 24, which is more conducive to attacking batting.

Slater was infamous for his susceptibility to the "Nervous Nineties". Although he had a conversion rate of 65 per cent in turning half-centuries into nineties, he took those nineties to centuries only forty per cent of the time.

His career fell apart during 2001. Against the backdrop of a marriage breakdown, he showed increased emotion on the field. During a Test match in Mumbai, India, against India, Slater claimed to have taken a diving catch off a mistimed pull-shot by Indian batsman Rahul Dravid. Both Dravid and the umpire Srinivas Venkataraghavan were unconvinced, and Dravid stood his ground. Slater was incensed and angrily confronted both Venkataraghavan and Dravid, shouting at them from less than 30 cm from their faces. TV replays showed that it was unlikely that Slater cleanly caught the ball. Slater was then fined for speaking out about the handling of the incident by the cricket authorities and narrowly evaded a ban.

Slater received scant sympathy from his national team-mates in the cauldron-like atmosphere of Australian state cricket. During one match of this period, Shane Warne and Darren Berry of Victoria decided to sledge Slater by suggesting that his temper was like a time-bomb. When Slater came out to bat, Warne and Berry began saying "tick... tock... tick... tock" alternately. After several overs, Slater got impatient and holed out to deep midwicket. As he trudged off he glared at Warne and Berry, who said in unison "Kaboom!".

Later, during the Ashes tour, Slater was dropped from the team, apparently due to missing a training session. However, then-captain Steve Waugh has since admitted that Slater was dropped due to his marital problems. Justin Langer replaced Slater, and after making three consecutive centuries, cemented his position as Australia's new opener. In March 2005 Slater gave an in-depth interview with Andrew Denton on ABC TV's Enough Rope: transcript

Slater played for Derbyshire in the English County Championship in 1998 and 1999.

Brendon Julian and Michael Slater swapped numbers after Slater had the wrong number tattooed upon his ankle. He actually had it done before he'd won his Baggy Green.

Slater is married to his second wife, Jo, and they have a son together, Jack, born in 2006.

Michael Slater. (2009, September 25). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 19:30, October 24, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Michael_Slater&oldid=316110387

Slater Reveals Bipolar Illness

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