Lance Cairns

New Zealand

Full name Bernard Lance Cairns

Born October 10, 1949, Picton, Marlborough

Current age 69 years 5 days

Major teams New Zealand, Central Districts, Durham, Minor Counties, Northern Districts, Otago

Batting style Right-hand bat

Bowling style Right-arm medium-fast

Relation Son - CL Cairns

Explore Lance Cairns's performance

Batting and fielding averages

	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	BF	SR	100	50	6s	Ct
Tests	43	65	8	928	64	16.28			0	2	28	30
ODIs	78	65	6	987	60	16.72	941	104.88	0	2		19
First-class	148	226	25	4165	110	20.72			1	23		89
List A	130	114	10	1885	95	18.12			0	9		37

Bowling averages

	Mat	Inns	Balls	Runs	Wkts	BBI	BBM	Ave	Econ	SR	4w	5w	10
Tests	43	72	10628	4280	130	7/74	10/144	32.92	2.41	81.7	5	6	1
ODIs	78	75	4015	2717	89	5/28	5/28	30.52	4.06	45.1	2	1	0
First-class	148		31722	12544	473	8/46		26.52	2.37	67.0		24	5
List A	130		6856	4384	167	5/28	5/28	26.25	3.83	41.0	5	1	0

Career statistics

Test debut	Australia v New Zealand at Adelaide, Jan 26-31, 1974 scorecard
Last Test	Australia v New Zealand at Perth, Nov 30-Dec 4, 1985 scorecard
Test statistics
ODI debut	New Zealand v Australia at Dunedin, Mar 30, 1974 scorecard
Last ODI	West Indies v New Zealand at Bridgetown, Apr 23, 1985 scorecard
ODI statistics
First-class span	1971/72 - 1984/85
List A span	1972/73 - 1988

Profile

Coming from Spring Creek, a Marlborough hamlet, Lance Cairns was the rawest of cricketers. The first Test he saw was the first one he played in. He had no idea that his awkward wrong-footed delivery was not the orthodox bowling action. But soon Cairns' ability to bowl big inswingers, and batsmanship born of broad shoulders and a good eye, made him a crowd-pleasing match-winner. He carried a wooden club, rather than a bat, with cutaway shoulders and bearing the name Excalibur - a massive blade that carved six sixes in one memorable one-day international against Australia at Melbourne. And one Christchurch day when New Zealand were waiting for Lancaster Park to dry out, Lance Cairns was bowling on the outfield to a classy 14-year-old - the Chris Cairns who in a decade or so would surpass his father's famous deeds.
Wisden Cricinfo staff

Latest Articles