Damien Fleming

Damien William Fleming is an Australian cricket commentator and former Australian fast bowler. He played for the Australian national team and domestic cricket for Victoria.

Damien is also the mastermind of ‘Bowlology’ – a program built on the science of maximising the physical, mental and emotional capabilities of a bowler.

A refreshing and entertaining speaker, Damien draws on his years playing Test Cricket for Australia and working in a strong team environment. During his presentations, he weaves humorous anecdotes together with strong motivational and leadership messages which easily translate into business and personal situations.

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Damien Fleming played in 20 Tests and 88 ODIs from 1994 to 2001 in an all-conquering Australian cricket team breaking Test and One day records and winning World Cups. He was recognised as an expert in the art of swing bowling and is one of only three men (along with Maurice Allom and Peter Petherick) to have taken a hat-trick on Test debut.

In ODI’s Damien was seen as a specialist bowling in the latter overs. He was the last-over specialist in both the 1996 and 1999 World Cup Semi-Finals. In 1996 at Mohali with the West Indies needing six runs to win off five balls, Damien Fleming bowled Courtney Walsh for victory. In 1999 at Edgbaston, with South Africa requiring one run with four balls remaining, it took an Allan Donald brain-fade to send Australia into the final. Damien Fleming helped Australia get over the line on both occasions.

Following his retirement in 2003 Damien was appointed head coach at the Australian Cricket Academy. It was around this time that the beginnings of his Bowlology theory began to take shape.

Damien’s work in commentating has included television and radio. He has commentated with the Seven Network TV cricket team, and Channel 10’s award winning Big Bash and BT Sports Ashes coverage teams. He was a member of the SEN 1116 radio commentary team in 2016, and during the same year released a best-selling book Bowlology – Stories from the Avenue of Apprehension, a collection of humorous stories based around his life in cricket.

Damien began to make regular appearances during the fourth season of Thank God You’re Here where he parodied the prevalence of sportsperson’s (notably cricketers) endorsing anything in the Australian media. He appeared also on Before the Bounce with Jason Dunstall and Danny Frawley, a weekly AFL football show broadcast on Foxtel.

Today, he is a popular and humorous figure on the public speaking circuit. Regular questions are asked of the last over he bowled in the 1999 semi-final tie against South Africa and that dropped catch by Shane Warne which denied him his second hat-trick.