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Mike Veletta was one of the young Australians singled out by Allan
Border and Bobby Simpson for their rebuilding programme after the Ashes
defeat of 1985 but, after a successful World Cup, he failed to deal with
the West Indian fast bowlers in 1988-89 and was discarded on the return
of Dean Jones. He made his debut for Western Australia in 1983-84 and
toured Zimbabwe in 1985-86 with a Young Australia side which also
included Jones, Steve Waugh, Bruce Reid, Tony Dodemaide and Dave
Gilbert.
Veletta played an important part in Australia's World Cup win
in 1987, scoring 43 not out against Zimbabwe at Cuttack, 48 in the
semi-final against Pakistan in Lahore and 45 not out against England in
the final. He made his Test debut against New Zealand in 1987-88,
scoring 31 and 39 at the MCG. He played against England in the
Bicentenary Test, scoring 22. He batted pluckily against Marshall,
Patterson, Ambrose and Walsh the following season but could not keep his
place. In England in 1989 he broke a finger and missed the second half
of the tour.
Although he did not make the Test side he played in two of
the three ODIs and scored 134 not out and 83 against Glamorgan at
Swansea. In Australia's World Series competition he made 68 not out
against Sri Lanka at Sydney and 57 not out in a final against New
Zealand. In the late 1990s he was chosen to captain the Australian
Capital Territory in its first foray into top class cricket in
Australia's domestic one day competition. (Bob Harragan)
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