Craig John McDermott is a former Australian cricketer. Between 1984 and 1996 he played 71 Tests for Australia, taking 291 wickets. Following the end of his playing career, he was the bowling coach for the Australian team for two spells between 2011 and 2016. McDermott was a part of the Australian team that won their first world title during the 1987 Cricket World Cup.

McDermott burst into the scene as a 19-year old at MCG, bowling first change after the seasoned duo of Rodney Hogg and Geoff Lawson. There was a brief period of magic as he bowled Richie Richardson and Jeff Dujon and got Larry Gomes caught within the space of one run to have the mighty West Indies struggling at 154 for 5. But, after that, he received a lesson on the travails of Test cricket. Viv Richards, having spent 10 innings without a half-century, now hit 3 sixes and 22 fours to plunder 208. The young fast bowler did not add to his wickets column in the first innings. However, as the match ended in a tense draw, he did get three more in the second essay, including Richards second ball.

The Ashes series that followed in England saw McDermott at his very best. After England had taken the lead at Leeds, the teenager rocked the home team’s first innings at Lord’s with 6 wickets. Captain Border scored 196 and Australia drew level. As a 20-year-old in England in 1985 he took 30 wickets in six Tests. In the fourth Test at Manchester, England piled up 482 for 9, but McDermott accounted for 8 of the wickets for 144. Australia lost The Ashes to David Gower’s men, but McDermott has made his name in the series.

This brilliant early promise was however not really carried forward in the seasons that followed. Back in Australia, he lost his rhythm against New Zealand and India. Gone were the confident run up and excellent outswing. He looked remarkably pedestrian, and so off-colour that even his hair seemed to have been sponged of the fiery hue. He did play that vital role in the World Cup campaign in 1987, but back in Australia for the Ashes, he broke down with one of the several injuries that would dog his career, and played just one Test. He would continue to be dealt crippling blows to his body, which would curtail his career and often cut his deserving frame out of the most memorable of Australian achievements.

Craig McDermott had a stop-start, injury-ravaged career (which included a twisted bowel and a broken ankle) but fought back to establish himself as Australia's premier strike bowler in the early 1990s. McDermott was not as fiery as his red hair suggested, nor did he capture the public imagination in the manner of Dennis Lillee or Shane Warne, but he was a textbook outswing bowler with a classic side-on action who could run through any batting order on his day.

McDermott got back to his top gear in January 1991, once more against the Englishmen. Brought back for the fourth Test at Adelaide, he scored his Test highest of 42 not out, and followed it up with five for 97 on an unhelpful surface. Through the early nineties he remained a regular in the team, picking up 24 wickets when West Indies visited, following it up with 31 against the hapless Indians with a 10-for at Adelaide. He seemed to have conquered his injuries and bowled with spirit and occasional venom in the West Indies when Australia toured in 1992/93. However, the Ashes tour that followed was a personal tragedy amidst Australian triumph.

He was back in the next series against New Zealand. When South Africa visited in 1993/94, he played a leading role in the final Test, breaking the thumb of Fanie de Villiers and picking up 4 second-innings wickets as Australia squared the series. But, once again injuries caught up with him. A broken ankle ensured that he did not make it to West Indies in 1994-95. Australia finally ended the Caribbean reign at the top by winning the series 2-1. McDermott missed out another landmark achievement during his playing days.

First selected for Queensland in 1984 at the age of 18, he would wind up his career in 1997 - short of the record he had hoped for - but acknowledged as one of Australia's great fast bowler. Statistically, he played in 71 Test matches and captured 291 wickets at 28.63. In 138 'Limited Over Internationals' he took a record 203 wickets while for Queensland he managed 303 wickets. McDermott used to smear his face white with chapstick, run in and hurl down quick deliveries — several years before Allan Donald had transformed the act into the realms of legend.

Craig developed into a more focussed cricketer later in his career earning him recognition in 1992 and 1995 where he was named International Cricketer of the Year. But injury and sheer misfortune were constant companions. He returned home from New Zealand with a leg injury in 1993 and with his 200th test scalp hanging from his belt. He recovered from a hernia operation in time for the Ashes tour of England, but played in just two Tests and three One Day Internationals before having his tour cut short.

His final moment of triumph came, as usual, against England in 1995-96. His 6 for 53 in the first innings at Brisbane set the tone for the series, and Shane Warne soon capitalised on it, skittling out eight Englishmen in the second innings. More five-wicket hauls followed in Sydney and Melbourne, before a spectacular burst of 6 for 38 in the second innings of Perth routed England for 123 and gave Australia the Ashes at 3-1. It was a superb feat, especially since he had strained his back before the start of the first England innings. McDermott finished with 32 wickets in his final Ashes campaign. QHe bowled decently enough against Pakistan and Sri Lanka in the following season at home. But, by then a number of younger fast bowlers were already breathing down his neck and injury ridden body of McDermott was feeling the strain of a decade of fast bowling.

Flowing fast and feisty, Craig was a marvellous asset to Australian cricket, a fine physical figure who would almost certainly have approached record breaking figures had he enjoyed better luck. A knee injury sustained during a club game early in the summer of 1996-97 finally settled the issue, he announced his retirement in January 1997. Craig has been president of his Gold Coast Dolphins club, retains a close interest in the game and heads his own building and development company in south east Queensland.