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Darren Berry

Darren Berry
Personal information
Full name Darren Shane Berry
Born (1969-12-10) 10 December 1969 (age 47)
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Nickname Chuck
Batting style Right-handed
Role Wicketkeeper
Domestic team information
Years Team
1989/90 South Australia
1990/91–2003/04 Victoria
2000 Marylebone
First-class debut 3 November 1989 South Australia v Queensland
Last First-class 12 March 2004 Victoria v Queensland
List A debut 21 October 1989 South Australia v Queensland
Last List A 21 February 2004 Victoria v Western Australia
Career statistics
Competition First-class List A
Matches 153 89
Runs scored 4273 825
Batting average 21.58 17.93
100s/50s 4/11 0/2
Top score 166* 64*
Balls bowled 12 0
Wickets 0
Bowling average
5 wickets in innings
10 wickets in match
Best bowling
Catches/stumpings 552/51 108/29
Source: CricketArchive, 7 November 2011

Darren Shane Berry (born 10 December 1969) is a former Australian cricketer who was known for his sharp skills as a wicketkeeper, first with South Australia and then Victoria in the Sheffield Shield and ING Cup domestic competitions. He is currently the head coach of the South Australia cricket team.

Making his first-class debut for South Australia in the 1989/90 season, Berry moved back to his native Victoria to play with the Bushrangers in the 1990/91 season, and enjoyed a large degree of success. One of the high points of his career came in the 1997 Ashes tour, when he was selected to replace the injured Adam Gilchrist as the team's second-string wicketkeeper. Unfortunately, Berry did not represent Australia in a Test match on that tour.

In 2003/04, Berry ended his career on a high, captaining Victoria to a Pura Cup title against Queensland, although he was suspended for a short time during the season when he was late to a training session after accidentally setting his alarm to the wrong time.

In terms of pure keeping ability, Berry was rated extremely highly, particularly his ability "keeping up" both to leg-spinner Shane Warne and to medium (and even fast-medium) paced bowlers. Warne, his Victorian teammate, said that "Darren Berry up to the stumps has probably been the best keeper that I've ever seen in my time ... I really wish he did get the opportunity to show how good a keeper he was, with a baggy green cap playing for Australia." Berry has often talked about his leg-side stumping off the bowling of paceman Paul Reiffel as one of his best achievements.

The reasons why Berry did not play for Australia included not only Australia's entrenched and effective keeper, Ian Healy, but his below par batting ability. Berry averaged only 21.58 in first-class cricket, with four centuries and 11 fifties in a long career, compared with Healy's 27 at Test level and 30 at first-class level, and well below the batting numbers of Healy's replacement, Adam Gilchrist


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