During his playing career for Tasmania and Australia, Brett Geeves played as a free spirit, an attacking fast bowler talented enough to earn the attention of national selectors.
In a way, he commentates as he played the game, bringing a new dimension to the Grandstand Test commentary team.
"It's an awesome, almost surreal experience to work alongside the likes of Drew Morphett and Jim Maxwell, people I've spent my entire life listening to," Geeves said.
"The ABC is the pinnacle of commentary."
An intelligent, affable humorist with a quick observational turn of phrase, he sums his commentary style up in simple terms.
"I just try to think of the common man and try to relate to the people who are listening who aren't professional cricket players," he said.
After 12 years in the Tasmanian system in which he was part of two one-day title winning teams, Brett’s career reached its end just when it looked as if his prodigious talent would elevate him to a prolonged international career.
Two stress fractures in the back by age 28 meant the writing was on the wall.
"I simply couldn't face the idea of another bout of rehabilitation. I'd been in the system for 12 years and I was gone mentally," he said.
His career ended prematurely but his record hardly suggests it was one unfulfilled. He played over 100 games for Tasmania in all formats and was a key member of his state's one-day winning teams of 2004/05 and 2007/08.
There were limited over internationals in Darwin and Cape Town, and a call up to Australia’s Test squad in South Africa in 2009.
You won't find Brett on the Grandstand airwaves too often on a Saturday afternoon, where instead he will be representing his beloved Glenrochy CC in the TCA competition.
Tags: cricket, sport, hobart-7000, tas, australia First posted December 18, 2012 16:27:26
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