Cricinfo - Players and Officials

Full name Beau Casson
Born December 7, 1982, Subiaco, Perth, Western Australia
Current age 25 years 161 days
Major teams Australia, New South Wales, Western Australia
Nickname Buzz
Playing role Bowler
Batting style Right-hand bat
Bowling style Slow left-arm chinaman
Height 1.78 m

Batting and fielding averages

Mat

Inns

Runs

Ave

100

First-class

1259

24.68

3478

36.19

List A

7.83

53.40

Twenty20

Bowling averages

Mat

Inns

Balls

Runs

Wkts

BBI

BBM

Ave

Econ

First-class

7316

4319

107

6/64

40.36

3.54

68.3

List A

618

509

4/31

28.27

4.94

34.3

Twenty20

1/20

52.00

7.42

42.0

Career statistics

First-class debut

2002/03

Last First-class

New South Wales v Victoria at Sydney, Mar 15-19, 2008 scorecard

List A debut

2002/03

Last List A

New South Wales v Victoria at Sydney, Feb 20, 2008 scorecard

Twenty20 debut

South Australia v Western Australia at Adelaide, Jan 10, 2006 scorecard

Last Twenty20

New South Wales v Western Australia at Sydney, Jan 10, 2008 scorecard

After battling injuries, poor form and switching states in the past few years, the planets finally aligned for Beau Casson in 2007-08. Following a season he would rather forget, Casson became New South Wales' first-choice spinner for much of the summer as Stuart MacGill spent time in the Australia team and then recovering from surgery. Casson relished the extra responsibility and used the helpful SCG conditions to collect 29 Pura Cup wickets at 35.13 and he was a valuable lower-order batsman with 485 runs at 60.62. He made 89 and grabbed four wickets in the state's final triumph and his late burst of strong form earned him a Cricket Australia contract and a place in the Test squad for the Caribbean tour in 2008. Not even the most optimistic Casson fan could have predicted the honours at the start of the season as he was coming off a disappointing 2006-07 when he managed only seven wickets at 72 from seven Pura Cup games. He was also light years behind MacGill, Brad Hogg, Dan Cullen and Cullen Bailey in the national slow-bowling pecking order. However, Hogg's retirement and the failure of Bailey and Cullen to impress at state level left the selectors looking for a backup for MacGill in the West Indies and Casson was preferred as a long-term option ahead of Victoria's Bryce McGain.

A left-arm wrist-spinner capable of big turn and with a hard-to-pick wrong'un, Casson moved to Sydney after 2005-06 as he searched for a way to halt his inflating bowling average. But a shoulder injury hampered him in his first summer away from Perth and although he tried to push through, a reconstruction was required at the end of the season. Casson walked out on Western Australia after his eight outings for them in 2005-06 yielded 17 wickets at 54.23. The Warriors did not want to let him go but Casson was desperate to make the SCG his home ground. He had burst into the Warriors' scene with ten wickets against South Australia in his second first-class appearance in 2002-03, and a season later earned another Man of the Match prize with eight against Queensland. Born with a heart problem, Casson is regularly monitored, but the disease did not trouble him as he made the Australia Under-19 team that won the World Cup in 2002 and attended the Academy.
Cricinfo staff April 2008

Mar 18, 2008

Beau Casson gets on the front foot © Getty Images

Mar 16, 2008

Beau Casson catches Shane Harwood © Getty Images

Mar 15, 2008

Beau Casson hits out © Getty Images

View the full list of 13 related images