David Houghton (cricketer)

David Laud Houghton (born 23 June 1957) is a former Zimbabwean Test cricketer and the current Head Coach of Derbyshire County Cricket Club.

He captained Zimbabwe in their first four Test matches, losing two and drawing two. He also led Zimbabwe in 17 One Day Internationals (winning one).

Early life

He was born in a family of prosperous farmers in Rhodesia and was conscripted into the Rhodesian Armoured Car Regiment in 1975. He played his first professional cricket in the Army, representing the regiment in the National Championship of 1977. He rose to the rank of Major in the Rhodesian Army and retired as a Reserve Officer of the Royal Rhodesia Regiment in 1983.

Other sports

Houghton also represented his country in hockey and was described by the Pakistan hockey team captain as the best goalkeeper he had ever played against.^[1]

International career

Houghton holds the record for the highest Test score by a Zimbabwean, with his 266 against Sri Lanka in 1994/5. He still holds the Test Match record for the most runs in a career without a duck, with 1,464.^[2] His most memorable one day international innings was against New Zealand in the 1987 Reliance World Cup, in which Houghton scored 142 runs off 137 deliveries with 13 fours and 6 sixes.^[3] This innings brought Zimbabwe to the brink of a surprise victory, but New Zealand won by only 3 runs,^[4][5] and is the highest score by an Associate Batsman against a Test playing nation, taking place as it did before Zimbabwe were granted Test Status. Since retiring as a player, Houghton has gone on to become a coach and commentator.

Coaching career

Before he was the coach of Derbyshire County Cricket Club he coached Radlett Cricket Club in Hertfordshire. Whilst in this role his best achievement was taking Radlett to victory in the Evening Standard trophy which is London's most prestigious cricket competition.

He initially coached Derbyshire from 2004 until the middle of the 2007 season when he resigned.^[6] He returned as first team batting coach 2011–2013.^[7]

He served Somerset in a similar role in 2014 (prior to the arrival of then director of cricket Matthew Maynard) before joining Middlesex for a four year spell as batting coach on 10 November 2014.

He was appointed to a newly created role as Head of Cricket by Derbyshire in September 2018 which took effect in October.

International centuries

Test centuries

Test centuries of David Houghton
No	Runs	Match	Against	City/Country	Venue	Year	Result
1	121	1	India	Harare, Zimbabwe	Harare Sports Club	1992	Drawn
2	266	9	Sri Lanka	Bulawayo, Zimbabwe	Queens Sports Club	1994	Drawn
3	142	10	Sri Lanka	Harare, Zimbabwe	Harare Sports Club	1994	Drawn
4	104*	16	New Zealand	Auckland, New Zealand	Eden Park	1996	Drawn

One Day International Centuries

One Day International centuries of David Houghton
No	Runs	Match	Against	City/Country	Venue	Year	Result
1	142	7	New Zealand	Hyderabad, India	Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium	1987	Lost

Records

• Fastest Zimbabwean test cricketer to reach 1000 test runs(24 innings).^[8]
• He along with Iain Butchart set the record for the highest 8th wicket partnership in ICC Cricket World Cup history(117)^[9][10]

International awards

One-Day International Cricket

Man of the Match awards

S No	Opponent	Venue	Date	Match Performance	Result
1	Australia	County Ground, Southampton	16 June 1983	WK 1 Ct. ; 84 (108 balls: 9x4, 1x6)	Australia won by 32 runs.[11]
2	New Zealand	Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium, Hyderabad	10 October 1987	WK 1 Ct. ; 142 (137 balls: 13x4, 6x6)	New Zealand won by 3 runs.[12]
3	South Africa	Newlands Cricket Ground, Cape Town	29 January 1997	57* (44 balls: 7x4, 1x6)	South Africa won by 5 wickets.[13]

References

External links

• David Houghton at ESPNcricinfo
• David Houghton at CricketArchive (subscription required)