Allan Lamb

For those of a similar name, see Alan Lamb (disambiguation).
Allan Lamb
Personal information
Full name Allan Joseph Lamb
Born (1954-06-20) 20 June 1954
Langebaanweg, Cape Province, Union of South Africa
Nickname Legga, Lambie
Height 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
Batting style Right-handed
Bowling style Right-arm medium
Role Batsman
International information
National side
Test debut (cap 494) 10–15 June 1982 v India
Last Test 18–21 June 1992 v Pakistan
ODI debut (cap 64) 2 June 1982 v India
Last ODI 24 August 1992 v Pakistan
Domestic team information
YearsTeam
1972–1993 Western Province
1978–1995 Northamptonshire
1987–1988 Orange Free State
Career statistics
Competition Test ODI FC OD
Matches 79 122 467 484
Runs scored 4656 4010 32502 15658
Batting average 36.09 39.31 48.94 39.14
100s/50s 14/18 4/26 89/166 19/98
Top score 142 118 294 132*
Balls bowled 30 6 305 32
Wickets 1 0 8 2
Bowling average 23.00 – 24.87 14.50
5 wickets in innings 0 0 0 0
10 wickets in match 0 – 0 –
Best bowling 1/6 – 2/29 1/4
Catches/stumpings 75/0 / 371/0 135/0
Source: Cricinfo, 30 November 2009

Allan Joseph Lamb (born 20 June 1954) is a former England cricketer and captain who played for the first class teams of Western Province and Northamptonshire. He joined Northamptonshire so he could enhance his career and eventually play Test cricket for England, as his native country South Africa were to be banned from International cricket due to the apartheid régime. He retired in 1995 at the age of 41 and currently works for Sky Sports and other foreign TV cricketing broadcasts as an analyst.

Personal life

Allan Lamb was born to British parents in Langebaanweg, Union of South Africa. His father Mickey was a journeyman club bowler and his mother Joan was an ardent spectator who never willingly missed a match. He attended Wynberg Boys' High School and Abbots College where he played cricket to an 'outstanding' level.

Career

Domestic cricket in South Africa

In January 1973, Allan made his first team debut at the age of 18 when he played for the Western Province in the Currie Cup. He batted at number three and made 59 and 36 against the Eastern Province.[1] He then had a two-year absence from the game and joined the National Service in the South African Air Force building airfields before returning to the club. Western Province then experimented with Allan as an opener, at 5 and 6 but 4 was always his true and regular position in the batting order for Western Province. Lamb then had one year playing for Orange Free State, where he scored his highest first class score of 294, before moving back to the Western Province for the rest of his South African domestic career.

County cricket with Northamptonshire

Lamb came to England along with two young other cricketers, Peter Kirsten and Garth Le Roux, in search of fame and a county contract and it was Northamptonshire who signed Lamb as a relatively unknown overseas player in 1978. He went on to become a fixture in the side for 17 years, 13 as an England international, winning the 1980 Benson & Hedges Cup Final and the 1992 NatWest Trophy, and in his final season as captain in 1995 he very nearly took Northamptonshire to their first County Championship with 12 wins in their final 17 matches.[2]

In 2001, Northamptonshire honoured him by naming a room in the club's Indoor Centre 'The Allan Lamb Room'.[3][4]

International for England

In 1970, South Africa were banned from international cricket indefinitely because of its government's policy of apartheid, an overtly racist policy, which led them to play only against the white nations and field only white players. This prevented Lamb from playing International cricket unless he emigrated to another nation. It was while in England that he was persuaded to play for them, having already qualified through his British-born parents, and his obvious talent led him to be selected for the national team only four years after moving there. He made his test debut against India in 1982,[5] and had also made his ODI debut a few days earlier.

Lamb, who would go on to play a total of 201 international matches for England (79 Tests, 122 One-Day Internationals), was regarded as a fine player of fast bowling, but like a large number of South African-born batsmen he had a comparative weakness against spin, and his final average of 36 in Tests from over 4,500 runs did not do justice to his ability. Of his 14 Test hundreds, 6 of them came against the West Indies in 22 matches, when he came up against some of the game's finest fast bowlers from Joel Garner and Malcolm Marshall to Courtney Walsh, Curtly Ambrose and Ian Bishop. However, only one of those centuries, in Jamaica in 1990, was in a winning cause, the other 5 seeing England fall to defeat.

Lamb was a member of two successful Ashes campaigns (in 1985 and 1986–87), but did not score a century in either series. In fact his sole Ashes century came at Headingley in 1989 in yet another losing cause. In 20 Ashes matches he scored 1138 runs at an average of over 34. He captained England in three Tests with disappointing results.

Lamb had considerably more success as a One-day player, averaging a shade under 40 with over 4,000 runs and being one of only fifteen Englishmen to play in over 100 matches. He played in two World Cup Finals in 1987 and 1992, but perhaps his most famous innings came in the 4th match of the 1987 Benson & Hedges World Series Cup against Australia, where England needed 17 runs to win off the final over to be bowled by Bruce Reid, who was a whole foot taller than him. Lamb hit Reid for 18 runs in 5 balls (2,4,6,2,4) to seal an improbable victory.[6] That over would be the subject of a cheeky banner used for the next match between the two sides which read "Can Bruce Reid please call Allan Lamb on 24624". England, who had earlier won the Ashes and the four-nation Perth Challenge, would go on to round off their triumphant tour by winning the tournament, which also featured the West Indies.

In 1992, during the ODI series against Pakistan, Lamb accused the Pakistani team of tampering with the cricket ball. Lamb was subsequently fined by the TCCB.[7][8]

Post-retirement

Since retiring from all forms of cricket in 1995, Lamb has published his autobiography called Silence of the Lamb, which he released in 1996. He has also done a lot of television work including working on the British TV channels Sky Sports and Channel 5 as an analyst. He alongside Ian Botham, have teamed up with English Beef and Lamb Executive to create an advertising campaign for Quality Standard Beef and Lamb in which they use their names, 'Beefy' and 'Lamby' and cartoon characteristics as a selling point.[9] He was also a contestant on a special Cricketers Edition of The Weakest Link, where he was voted off in the second round.

Achievements

Test matches

Centuries:

No. Score Against Pos. Inn. Test Venue H/A Date Result
1 107  India 3 1 3/3 The Oval, London Home 8 July 1982 Draw[10]
2 102*  New Zealand 4 3 1/4 The Oval, London Home 14 July 1983 Won[11]
3 137*  New Zealand 4 3 4/4 Trent Bridge, Nottingham Home 25 August 1983 Won[12]
4 110  West Indies 4 3 2/5 Lord's, London Home 28 June 1984 Lost[13]
5 100  West Indies 5 1 3/5 Headingley, Leeds Home 12 July 1984 Lost[14]
6 100*  West Indies 5 2 4/5 Old Trafford, Manchester Home 26 July 1984 Lost[15]
7 107  Sri Lanka 5 2 1/1 Lord's, London Home 23 August 1984 Draw[16]
8 113  West Indies 5 4 2/4 Lord's, London Home 16 June 1988 Lost[17]
9 125  Australia 4 2 1/5 Headingley, Leeds Home 8 June 1989 Lost[18]
10 132  West Indies 4 2 1/4 Sabina Park, Kingston Away 24 February 1990 Won[19]
11 119  West Indies 4 2 3/4 Kensington Oval, Bridgetown Away 5 April 1990 Lost[20]
12 139  India 4 1 1/3 Lord's, London Home 26 July 1990 Won[21]
13 109  India 4 3 2/3 Old Trafford, Manchester Home 9 August 1990 Draw[22]
14 142  New Zealand 5 3 3/3 Basin Reserve, Wellington Away 6 February 1992 Draw[23]

Career performance:

  Batting[24] Bowling[25]
Opposition Matches Runs Average High Score 100 / 50 Runs Wickets Average Best (Inns)
Australia 20 1138 34.48 125 1 / 7 10 0 – –
India 13 877 43.85 139 3 / 4 6 1 6.00 1/6
New Zealand 14 941 47.05 142 3 / 4 – – – –
Pakistan 8 180 12.42 33 0 / 0 – – – –
Sri Lanka 2 178 59.33 107 1 / 1 6 0 – –
West Indies 22 1342 34.41 132 6 / 2 1 0 – –
Overall 79 4656 36.09 142 14 / 18 23 1 23.00 1/6
An innings-by-innings breakdown of Allan Lambs Test match batting career, showing runs scored (red bars) and the average of the last ten innings (blue line).

ODI matches

Centuries:

No. Score Against Pos. Inn. Test Venue H/A Date Result
1 118  Pakistan 3 2 1/2 Trent Bridge, Nottingham Home 17 July 1982 Won[26]
2 108*  New Zealand 4 2 7/14 SCG, Sydney Away 20 January 1983 Won[27]
3 137*  New Zealand 4 1 1/1 The Oval, London Home 9 June 1983 Won[28]
4 100*  Australia 4 1 2/3 Trent Bridge, Nottingham Home 27 May 1989 Lost[29]

Career performance:

  Batting[30] Bowling[31]
Opposition Matches Runs Average High Score 100 / 50 Runs Wickets Average Best (Inns)
Australia 23 710 37.36 100* 1 / 4 – – – –
India 15 556 50.54 99 0 / 4 – – – –
New Zealand 28 921 35.42 108* 2 / 3 – – – –
Pakistan 22 830 41.50 118 1 / 5 – – – –
South Africa 1 19 19.00 19 0 / 0 – – – –
Sri Lanka 6 247 61.75 76 0 / 4 3 – – –
West Indies 26 710 35.50 75 0 / 6 – – – –
Zimbabwe 1 17 17.00 17 0 / 0 – – – –
Overall 122 4010 32.87 118 4 / 26 3 – – –

See also

References

  1. ↑ Allan Lamb's debut CricketArchive. Retrieved 2009-11-30.
  2. ↑ "Northamptonshire's cult heroes". Cricinfo. November 2005.
  3. ↑ Room at the top for Allan Lamb Cricinfo. Retrieved 2011-08-08.
  4. ↑ Lamb honoured by county BBC Sport Retrieved 2011-08-08.
  5. ↑ England v India scorecard 1982 Cricinfo. Retrieved 2010-06-01.
  6. ↑ Australia v England scorecard 1987 Cricinfo. Retrieved 2011-08-08.
  7. ↑ Bad blood, balls and botches Cricinfo. Retrieved 2012-06-16.
  8. ↑ Ward, Stephen (1993-11-21). "Are the Pakistani bowlers cheating?: After the 'ball tampering' case, a question remains unanswered". The Independent. Retrieved 2012-06-16.
  9. ↑ Memorable adverts featuring sports stars The Independent. Retrieved 2009-11-30.
  10. ↑ 3rd Test: England v India at The Oval, 8–13 Jul 1982 Cricinfo. Retrieved 2010-06-02.
  11. ↑ 1st Test: England v New Zealand at The Oval, 14–18 Jul 1983 Cricinfo. Retrieved 2010-06-02.
  12. ↑ 4th Test: England v New Zealand at Nottingham, 25–29 Aug 1983 Cricinfo. Retrieved 2010-06-02.
  13. ↑ 2nd Test: England v West Indies at Lord's, 28 Jun – 3 Jul 1984 Cricinfo. Retrieved 2010-06-02.
  14. ↑ 3rd test: England v West Indies at Leeds, 12–16 Jul 1984 Cricinfo. Retrieved 2010-06-02.
  15. ↑ 4th Test: England v West Indies at Manchester, 26–31 Jul 1984 Cricinfo. Retrieved 2010-06-02.
  16. ↑ Only Test: England v Sri Lanka at Lord's, 23–28 Aug 1984 Cricinfo. Retrieved 2010-06-02.
  17. ↑ 2nd Test: England v West Indies at Lord's, 16–21 Jun 1988 Cricinfo. Retrieved 2010-06-02.
  18. ↑ 1st Test: England v Australia at Leeds, 8–13 Jun 1989 Cricinfo. Retrieved 2010-06-02.
  19. ↑ 1st Test: West Indies v England at Kingston, 24 Feb – 1 Mar 1990 Cricinfo. Retrieved 2010-06-02.
  20. ↑ 4th Test: West Indies v England at Bridgetown, 5–10 Apr 1990 Cricinfo. Retrieved 2010-06-02.
  21. ↑ 1st Test: England v India at Lord's, 26–31 July 1990 Cricinfo. Retrieved 2010-06-02.
  22. ↑ 2nd Test: England v India at Manchester, 9–14 Aug 1990 Cricinfo. Retrieved 2010-06-02.
  23. ↑ 3rd Test: New Zealand v England at Wellington, 6–10 Feb 1992 Cricinfo. Retrieved 2010-06-02.
  24. ↑ Test Batting and Fielding Against Each Opponent CricketArchive. Retrieved 2009-11-30.
  25. ↑ Test Bowling Against Each Opponent CricketArchive. Retrieved 2009-11-30.
  26. ↑ 1st ODI: England v Pakistan at Nottingham, 17 Jul 1982 Cricinfo. Retrieved 2010-06-02.
  27. ↑ 7th Match: England v New Zealand at Sydney, 20 Jan 1983 Cricinfo. Retrieved 2010-06-02.
  28. ↑ 1st Match: England v New Zealand at The Oval, 9 Jun 1983 Cricinfo. Retrieved 2010-06-02.
  29. ↑ 2nd ODI: England v Australia at Nottingham, 27 May 1989 Cricinfo. Retrieved 2010-06-02.
  30. ↑ ODI Batting and Fielding Against Each Opponent CricketArchive. Retrieved 2010-01-04.
  31. ↑ ODI Bowling Against Each Opponent CricketArchive. Retrieved 2010-01-04.

External links

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