Allan Lamb

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 Right-handed
Bowling 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 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. He also starred in the instant classic 'What Rats Won't Do' a film which also starred Samantha Bond, Charles Dance and Harry Enfield. [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.ScoreAgainstPos.Inn.TestVenueH/ADateResult
1107 India3 13/3The Oval, LondonHome8 July 1982Draw[10]
2102* New Zealand4 31/4The Oval, LondonHome14 July 1983Won[11]
3137* New Zealand4 34/4Trent Bridge, NottinghamHome25 August 1983Won[12]
4110 West Indies4 32/5Lord's, LondonHome28 June 1984Lost[13]
5100 West Indies5 13/5Headingley, LeedsHome12 July 1984Lost[14]
6100* West Indies5 24/5Old Trafford, ManchesterHome26 July 1984Lost[15]
7107 Sri Lanka5 21/1Lord's, LondonHome23 August 1984Draw[16]
8113 West Indies5 42/4Lord's, LondonHome16 June 1988Lost[17]
9125 Australia4 21/5Headingley, LeedsHome8 June 1989Lost[18]
10132 West Indies4 21/4Sabina Park, KingstonAway24 February 1990Won[19]
11119 West Indies4 23/4Kensington Oval, BridgetownAway5 April 1990Lost[20]
12139 India4 11/3Lord's, LondonHome26 July 1990Won[21]
13109 India4 32/3Old Trafford, ManchesterHome9 August 1990Draw[22]
14142 New Zealand5 33/3Basin Reserve, WellingtonAway6 February 1992Draw[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.ScoreAgainstPos.Inn.TestVenueH/ADateResult
1118 Pakistan3 21/2Trent Bridge, NottinghamHome17 July 1982Won[26]
2108* New Zealand4 27/14SCG, SydneyAway20 January 1983Won[27]
3137* New Zealand4 11/1The Oval, LondonHome9 June 1983Won[28]
4100* Australia4 12/3Trent Bridge, NottinghamHome27 May 1989Lost[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 – – –

International awards

One Day International Cricket

Man of the Match awards

# Opponent Venue Date Match Performance Result
1 India Kennington Oval, London 4 June 1982 99 (109 balls, 5x4)  England won by 114 runs.[32]
2 Pakistan Trent Bridge, Nottingham 17 July 1982 118 (121 balls, 14x4)  England won by 7 wickets.[33]
3 New Zealand Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney 20 January 1983 1 Ct. ; 108* (106 balls, 9x4, 1x6)  England won by 8 wickets.[34]
4 Australia Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne 23 January 1983 94 (76 balls, 9x4, 2x6)  Australia won by 5 wickets.[35]
5 New Zealand Kennington Oval, London 9 June 1983 102 (105 balls, 12x4, 2x6) ; 2 Ct.  England won by 106 runs.[36]
6 India M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore 20 January 1985 59* (75 balls, 4x4, 1x6)  England won by 3 wickets.[37]
7 Pakistan Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne 2 March 1985 81 (69 balls, 12x4, 1x6)  Pakistan won by 67 runs.[38]
8 Australia Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney 22 January 1987 77* (102 balls, 3x4, 1x6)  England won by 3 wickets.[39]
9 West Indies Jinnah Stadium, Gujranwala 9 October 1987 67* (68 balls, 5x4, 1x6)  England won by 2 wickets.[40]
10 Sri Lanka Arbab Niaz Stadium, Peshawar 17 October 1987 76 (58 balls, 3x4, 2x6) ; 1–0–3–0  England won by 109 runs.[41]
11 Australia Trent Bridge, Nottingham 27 May 1989 100* (105 balls, 9x4) ; DNB Match tied.[42]
12 New Zealand Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney 13 December 1990 72 (110 balls, 7x4) ; 1 Ct.  England won by 33 runs.[43]
13 West Indies Old Trafford, Manchester 25 May 1991 62 (50 balls, 10x4)  England won by 9 runs.[44]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Allan Lamb's debut CricketArchive. Retrieved 30 November 2009.
  2. ↑ "Northamptonshire's cult heroes". Cricinfo. November 2005.
  3. ↑ Room at the top for Allan Lamb Cricinfo. Retrieved 8 August 2011.
  4. ↑ Lamb honoured by county BBC Sport Retrieved 8 August 2011.
  5. ↑ England v India scorecard 1982 Cricinfo. Retrieved 1 June 2010.
  6. ↑ Australia v England scorecard 1987 Cricinfo. Retrieved 8 August 2011.
  7. ↑ Bad blood, balls and botches Cricinfo. Retrieved 16 June 2012.
  8. ↑ Ward, Stephen (21 November 1993). "Are the Pakistani bowlers cheating?: After the 'ball tampering' case, a question remains unanswered". The Independent. Retrieved 16 June 2012.
  9. ↑ Memorable adverts featuring sports stars The Independent. Retrieved 30 November 2009.
  10. ↑ 3rd Test: England v India at The Oval, 8–13 Jul 1982 Cricinfo. Retrieved 2 June 2010.
  11. ↑ 1st Test: England v New Zealand at The Oval, 14–18 Jul 1983 Cricinfo. Retrieved 2 June 2010.
  12. ↑ 4th Test: England v New Zealand at Nottingham, 25–29 Aug 1983 Cricinfo. Retrieved 2 June 2010.
  13. ↑ 2nd Test: England v West Indies at Lord's, 28 Jun – 3 Jul 1984 Cricinfo. Retrieved 2 June 2010.
  14. ↑ 3rd test: England v West Indies at Leeds, 12–16 Jul 1984 Cricinfo. Retrieved 2 June 2010.
  15. ↑ 4th Test: England v West Indies at Manchester, 26–31 Jul 1984 Cricinfo. Retrieved 2 June 2010.
  16. ↑ Only Test: England v Sri Lanka at Lord's, 23–28 Aug 1984 Cricinfo. Retrieved 2 June 2010.
  17. ↑ 2nd Test: England v West Indies at Lord's, 16–21 Jun 1988 Cricinfo. Retrieved 2 June 2010.
  18. ↑ 1st Test: England v Australia at Leeds, 8–13 Jun 1989 Cricinfo. Retrieved 2 June 2010.
  19. ↑ 1st Test: West Indies v England at Kingston, 24 Feb – 1 Mar 1990 Cricinfo. Retrieved 2 June 2010.
  20. ↑ 4th Test: West Indies v England at Bridgetown, 5–10 Apr 1990 Cricinfo. Retrieved 2 June 2010.
  21. ↑ 1st Test: England v India at Lord's, 26–31 July 1990 Cricinfo. Retrieved 2 June 2010.
  22. ↑ 2nd Test: England v India at Manchester, 9–14 Aug 1990 Cricinfo. Retrieved 2 June 2010.
  23. ↑ 3rd Test: New Zealand v England at Wellington, 6–10 Feb 1992 Cricinfo. Retrieved 2 June 2010.
  24. ↑ Test Batting and Fielding Against Each Opponent CricketArchive. Retrieved 30 November 2009.
  25. ↑ Test Bowling Against Each Opponent CricketArchive. Retrieved 30 November 2009.
  26. ↑ 1st ODI: England v Pakistan at Nottingham, 17 Jul 1982 Cricinfo. Retrieved 2 June 2010.
  27. ↑ 7th Match: England v New Zealand at Sydney, 20 Jan 1983 Cricinfo. Retrieved 2 June 2010.
  28. ↑ 1st Match: England v New Zealand at The Oval, 9 Jun 1983 Cricinfo. Retrieved 2 June 2010.
  29. ↑ 2nd ODI: England v Australia at Nottingham, 27 May 1989 Cricinfo. Retrieved 2 June 2010.
  30. ↑ ODI Batting and Fielding Against Each Opponent CricketArchive. Retrieved 4 January 2010.
  31. ↑ ODI Bowling Against Each Opponent CricketArchive. Retrieved 4 January 2010.
  32. ↑ "1982 England v India – 2nd Match – London". Howstat. Retrieved 16 August 2015.
  33. ↑ "1982 England v India – 2nd Match – London". Howstat. Retrieved 16 August 2015.
  34. ↑ "1982–1983 Benson & Hedges World Series Cup – 7th Match – England v New Zealand – Sydney". Howstat. Retrieved 16 August 2015.
  35. ↑ "1982–1983 Benson & Hedges World Series Cup – 9th Match – Australia v England – Melbourne". Howstat. Retrieved 16 August 2015.
  36. ↑ "1983 Prudential World Cup – 1st Match – England v New Zealand – London". Howstat. Retrieved 16 August 2015.
  37. ↑ "1984–1985 India v England – 3rd Match – Bengaluru, Bangalore". Howstat. Retrieved 16 August 2015.
  38. ↑ "1984–1985 Benson & Hedges World Championship – 8th Match – England v Pakistan – Melbourne". Howstat. Retrieved 16 August 2015.
  39. ↑ "1986–1987 Benson & Hedges World Series Cup – 4th Match – Australia v England – Sydney". Howstat. Retrieved 16 August 2015.
  40. ↑ "1987–1988 Reliance World Cup – 2nd Match – England v West Indies – Gujranwala". Howstat. Retrieved 16 August 2015.
  41. ↑ "1987–1988 Reliance World Cup – 10th Match – England v Sri Lanka – Peshawar". Howstat. Retrieved 16 August 2015.
  42. ↑ "1989 England v Australia – 2nd Match – Nottingham". Howstat. Retrieved 16 August 2015.
  43. ↑ "1990–1991 Benson & Hedges World Series – 7th Match – England v New Zealand – Sydney". Howstat. Retrieved 16 August 2015.
  44. ↑ "1991 England v West Indies – 2nd Match – Manchester". Howstat. Retrieved 16 August 2015.
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