Shawn Bradstreet      

Shawn 'Winger' Bradstreet might have suffered from an onset of stress fractures in his back that threatened to jeopardise his cricket career almost before it had started. But it has ultimately not stopped him from stringing together several consistent summers at club level or from making a generally successful transition to interstate cricket over recent seasons. An all-rounder, Bradstreet hails from the Manly-Warringah club and is a competitive, iron-willed and dependable player. His major asset is his ability to bowl with good pace and with a healthy complement of swing, particularly away from right handers. But he is also a more than handy strokemaker and is capable of playing either forcefully or patiently as situations decree. At domestic level, these qualities manifested themselves immediately; in his very first game, he featured in a defiant partnership of 96 for the ninth wicket that led to a stunning and unlikely New South Wales win over Queensland at North Sydney in 1998-99. The suffocatingly accurate spell that netted him figures of 2/17 against South Australia shortly thereafter and the magnificent unbeaten 75 that he compiled to lead his team to another stirring victory against Western Australia only reinforced the favourable impression; moreover, they went a long way toward securing him the coveted Mercantile Mutual Cup Rookie of the Year title. Bradstreet's general cricketing nous is also well respected and, during the 1999-2000 summer, he even won a meteoric promotion to the Blues' captaincy post in the absence of the squad's international representatives. While he was unable to lift the team to great heights (and even continued to be omitted from the eleven when the internationals returned!), the appointment was a mark of the esteem in which he is held. It also provided ringing endorsement of the fact that his influence in his state's progress over forthcoming years should continue to be significant. (John Polack, May 2001)

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