Luke Pomersbach

Pomersbach made his Ford Ranger Cup debut for Western Australia in their match against New South Wales in November 2006, scoring 33 runs from 47 balls. In December 2006 in a two-day tour match at the WACA against the England XI, he showed his potential against a quality bowling attack when he scored 101 not out.[2]

Shortly after, he made his first-class cricket debut against Tasmania in a Pura Cup match at Bellerive Oval in Hobart. He performed very well scoring 74 in the first innings, partnering Chris Rogers in a 106 run 5th wicket partnership. He continued his good form into the second innings when he came to the wicket with WA in trouble at 4/36. With a mix of aggressive strokeplay and careful defending he helped to save WA, scoring 63 runs, leaving his teammates only 32 more runs to win.

In November 2007, Pomersbach and fellow Western Warrior Shaun Marsh were suspended from the state side for drinking alcohol following a game against Queensland. Despite this suspension, he was named in the Cricket Australia Chairman's XI to play in the annual Lilac Hill game. He starred against the New Zealanders, scoring 88 runs from 65 balls.[3]

Pomersbach then made a most unusual debut for the Australian cricket team in a Twenty20 International against New Zealand in Perth on 11 December 2007. Having not been selected in the original squad for the match, Pomersbach was at the ground as a spectator, when a back injury to Brad Hodge during the warm-up forced the Australian team to call on Pomersbach as an emergency replacement. He again performed well, scoring 15 runs from 7 balls, including a 6 off the third ball he faced.[4] Pomersbach also won the 2008 Bradman Young Player of the Year.[5]

He attended Yale Primary School and Kent Street Senior High School in Perth.[6]

On 9 August 2009, after two hit-and-run incidents, Pomersbach was arrested and charged by police with failing to stop, failing to accompany police, driving with a blood alcohol level in excess of .08, assaulting a public officer, obstructing police and escaping legal custody.[7] He pleaded guilty and was fined and had his driver's licence cancelled. The WACA responded by suspending him indefinitely. On 6 October 2009, Pomersbach was awarded an extraordinary driver's licence due to hardship using public transport.[8] He returned from his ban for Western Australia in January 2010.

Pomersbach signed with the Perth Scorchers in the Big Bash League (BBL) in June 2011.[9] In October 2011, Pomersbach stood down from Western Australia and the Scorchers to deal with depression.[10]

Pomersbach played for the Kings XI Punjab in the 2008 and 2009 Indian Premier League seasons. He switched to Royal Challengers Bangalore for the 2011 Indian Premier League.[11] In 2012 Pomersbach returned to play for Bangalore in the 2012 Indian Premier League.[12]

In May 2012, he was arrested and charged with molesting a woman and assaulting her fiancé after an incident at a hotel in India.[13][14] He was released on bail but had to surrender his passport.[15] The case was later settled out of court and the charges were dropped.[16]

In January 2013 he was the second leading run scorer in the 2012–13 Big Bash League season.[17] Playing for the Brisbane Heat he scored 112 runs from 70 deliveries in the semi-final and was a member of the Heat team that won the final the following week against his former team, the Perth Scorchers.[18]

He was bought by the Kings XI Punjab for the 2013 Indian Premier League for US$300,000 in the auction on 3 February 2013.[19]

• Luke Pomersbach at ESPNcricinfo