User:Cupcake92/Cricket/Players/Tyson Jackman

Tyson George Jackman (born 20 June 1988 in Durban, Natal Province, South Africa) is a South African-born English cricketer who currently plays for Middlesex, London Royals and England. Jackman is a hard-hitting, aggressive right-handed batsman and occassional medium pacer and has the ability to wow the crowds with his strokeplay. A middle-order batsman in the longer forms of the game, he often opens in T20 cricket with great success, and recently was named England captain in the 20-over format. However, he has not been without his personal problems.

Early life
Tyson Jackman was born in Durban as the only child of an English born father, Brian Jackman, and a Greek-South African mother, Maria (née Athanasiou). He began playing cricket in the streets with his friends at the age of six. When Tyson was 10, the Jackmans moved to north west London. The young Jackman initially found it difficult at his new school, where he was frequently bullied for his strong Afrikaner accent (he now speaks with an Estuary accent but traces of South African can still be heard) and about apartheid which for a White South African can be tough to take. However he found himself in the school's cricket team where he immediately excelled, not just at batting, but at bowling as well, as his medium pace was a handful for opposition. Soon the abuse turned into respect and he became one of the more popular kids at his school.

Middlesex early years, 2007–2011
He joined the Middlesex academy in 2003. After watching Kevin Pietersen bat in the 2005 Ashes, Jackman began to model himself on the fellow South African born Englishman as a batsman. He made his debut for Middlesex Seconds in 2006. A year afterwards he made official debut for Middlesex in a Sunday League game against Essex. He batted at six and made 13 in 9 before nicking it to the keeper.

In 2008, he was given his debut in the championship. He made 24 and 15 against Warwickshire, on both occasions holing out to long on. Afterwards the appearances in whites were infrequent, but he spent most of the summer excelling in a pink shirt. He became a regular for Middlesex's Twenty20 side and after a stunning debut where he made 64 off 26 balls batting at five, he was promoted up the order to three where continuously showed his promising talent. They reached Finals Day, and Jackman made 83 in the semi against Leicestershire and 54 in the final against Kent before he was bowled by Kenny Brick. Middlesex won by 1 wicket in the final over, and Jackman was named the man of the match. At the end of the season, Jackman was named as one of the breakthrough players of the year.

In 2009, his first-class form was again erratic, but he once again showed his worth in T20, but Middlesex crashed out in the quarter-finals, losing to eventual champions Hampshire despite Jackman's unbeaten 88. He also hit his first century in One-Day cricket making 123 against Durham in the 40-over Sunday League. That year, he also made his England A debut in the one-day game.

In 2010, he showed marked improvement in the red-ball game, while he had an average List A season, and again he saved his best performances for T20, where that year, he opened the innings for the first time after a couple of years at three. Even though he was averaging 60, Middlesex failed to get out of the South group.

England T20 specialist, 2011–2013
In 2011, the British Cricket League T20 franchise league was inaugurated and Jackman was signed by the London Hornets. After averaging only 28, he was released at the end of the season. However after another stellar T20 county campaign with Middlesex where he averaged 55, England selected him for the two-game T20I series against India. In the first match at Nottingham, batting at three, he was bowled first ball by Kunal Bhattacharya, but atoned for that error with a classy 44 off 28 in the second game at the Oval guiding England to victory in a 1-1 series draw. From there on in, he cemented himself as a T20 regular for England.

In 2012, after successive failures in the longer formats of the game, Middlesex issued an ultimatum to Jackman, improve in the longer forms, or face the sack. He used these words for motivation and soon he averaging 40 in the Championship in early parts of the season. For the second season of the BCL, he signed with London Royals and averaged 44. He was selected in the Great Britain squad for the Unity Games T20 tournament in London and the Home Counties. Jackman averaged 40 in the Games, including a rapid 17-ball 50 against Australia, but Team GB failed to pick up a medal losing in the Bronze Medal match to Jamaica.

Despite being sacked by the Royals for breaking curfew for the Champions League campaign, England selected Jackman for his first T20 World Cup although banned him for the first two matches as punishment. Once he did make his debut, he averaged 60 in the tournament including a heart breaking 99 when he nicked it to the New Zealand wicketkeeper. England reached the semi-finals, but lost to Sri Lanka.

ODI debut and whitewash averter, 2013-2014
In 2013, the calls were getting louder for Jackman to make his ODI debut. The year before, he had shown improving form in the one-day game averaging 66 in the few matches he played, he missed a large chunk of the tournament due to his participation in the Unity Games. And then for the one-day series against New Zealand, Jackman was finally called up, desperate to rid himself of the T20 specialist tag. One day run rates had become almost T20 like, and Jackman's introduction to the format was therefore necessary as England lacked really attacking batsman bar Kenny Brick. NZ took the series 3-2 but Jackman averaged 55, and was selected for the Champions Trophy, where he averaged 45, helping England reach the final where they lost to Australia.

For the third season of the BCL, Jackman joined the new expansion team Southampton Stallions and averaged 56 as the Stallions narrowly missed the play-offs.

But most notably he averaged 50 in the championship, including a stunning double century made in just three hours.

Jackman came to Australia to play for T20 outfit Sydney Smashers and hit a century against local rivals the Boomers. And then with England, 4-0 down, being thrashed in all departments in the Ashes, Tyson Jackman received his first Test call up for the 5th and final test at Sydney. With the demon bowler Andrew Golden ruled out with an ankle sprain after treading on a stray ball in training, England were in with a shout. After making a duck in his first innings, he atoned by scoring his maiden Test century and England won by three wickets to end Australia's whitewash hopes.

However England were whitewashed in both the ODI and T20 series, and Jackman was the only England player to stand up to the Australian challenge averaging 48 in the ODIs and 42 in the T20s.