The Surfer

The player whose face just doesn't seem to fit

Mathew Sinclair went fishing the day he received the news most of us expected but somehow hoped wouldn't happen

16 Oct 2001: Mathew Sinclair of New Zealand shows his disappointment after being bowled for 17 runs during the New Zealand Cricket team's tour match against the Queensland Academy of Sport XI which is being played at Allan Border Field in Brisbane, Australia.

Darren England/Getty Images

Mathew Sinclair went fishing the day he received the news most of us expected but somehow hoped wouldn't happen. He didn't catch anything. Sinclair is just not having a time of his life, missing out on another contract, writes Dylan Cleaver in The New Zealand Herald
Here's two statistics to consider when assessing Sinclair's test record. Up to 2001, when Sinclair started to be dropped and picked for the test team, he averaged 43.16. Since 2002, when he began to get mucked around, he has averaged just 23.06.
He scored far too slowly (SR 60.76) to ever be truly effective in his 45 one-day internationals and that provided the selectors with enough ammunition to drop him.

Kanishkaa Balachandran is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo