A level-headed cricketer of immense talent, Cameron White long seemed destined to play a significant role for Australia. At the start of his career it was hard to know whether he would develop into a nagging legspinner, aggressive middle-order batsman, intuitive skipper, or a bit of all three. After being tried as a Test leggie in India in 2008, it became apparent that batting was his focus and he developed into a destructive stroke-maker in the shorter formats. His maturity was recognised when he was named as Australia's Twenty20 captain in 2011. The appointment lasted only a year due to his batting form but it was a natural fit, for he had nearly a decade of captaincy experience having led Victoria in 2003-04 at the age of 20. The youngest skipper in their history, he won rave reviews for his cool head and warm handling of more hardened contemporaries. For all that, he remained a largely unassuming country lad. Picked to tour Zimbabwe when Stuart MacGill withdrew for moral reasons, White cancelled a fishing trip to attend the press conference then boyishly shrugged aside questions about the circumstances of his selection. He was chosen as much for his no-frills batting as his bowling; David Hookes, the late Victorian coach, felt White's best chance of representing Australia was to earn a top-six spot.
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