Ian Salisbury
Encyclopedia
Ian David Kenneth Salisbury (born 21 January 1970, Northampton
, England
) is an English
former cricket
er, one of the few leg-spinners to play Test cricket
for England in recent years. Salisbury played in fifteen Tests and four One Day Internationals betwwen 1992 and 2000. He played first-class cricket
for Sussex
, Surrey
and Warwickshire
in a career stretching from 1989 to 2008.
The cricket writer, Colin Bateman, commented, "the selection of Ian Salisbury against Pakistan in 1992 made cricket romantics rejoice. When he played at Lord's
he became the first specialist leg-spinner selected for England since Robin Hobbs
in 1971". The reality was that in his subsequent Test career, Salisbury's tally of twenty wickets cost almost 77 runs apiece.
debut for Sussex
in 1989, taking the wicket of Ian Austin
in both innings. The following year he claimed 42 wickets, albeit at a somewhat expensive average
of 49.40, but his potential was recognised with a spot on the England A tour to Pakistan
and Sri Lanka
, and the following winter (again with England A) he toured West Indies with some success, taking 14 wickets at 27.42.
1992 was Salisbury's breakthrough year, seeing him pick up 87 first-class wickets at under 29 apiece, including six five-wicket hauls. He was rewarded both with being named one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year
in the next year's Almanack, and with his Test match debut.
at Lord's
, and he did not rise to the occasion well enough, though in the third Test he made an important half-century in the first-innings. He was then dropped for the rest of the summer.
This was to become a familiar pattern, as England regularly turned to Salisbury now that leg-spin was being made fashionable again by the emergence of Shane Warne
, and just as regularly discarded him after a couple of matches; never in his fifteen Test career did he play more than three games in a row. He was not good enough to prosper at the highest level, with a career Test bowling average of 76.95, and he has been rated as the worst specialist bowler in Test cricket. He played his last Test in 2000/01 in Karachi
, with a series aggregate of 1-193.
in 1998 in a one-off Test match against Sri Lanka. The visitors were cruising to an big score on a flat pitch and all of England's bowlers were toiling. Salisbury had come in for some particularly harsh treatment. England's then captain
, Alec Stewart
decided to give Mark Ramprakash
a bowl, who managed a maiden over. One of the spectators in the Surrey pavilion cried out "Are you watching, Salisbury?" - referring to Salisbury's inability to bowl a maiden.
, however, Salisbury was a different man. He passed 50 wickets most seasons, and when he left Sussex for Surrey in 1997 he revelled in wickets that suited his bowling style. In successive seasons his bowling average improved: 31.20, 22.89, 22.19, and in 2000 he took 52 wickets at just 18.92, including a career-best 8-60 (and 11-101 in the match) at The Oval
against Somerset
.
1999 saw the first of Salisbury's three first-class hundreds, exactly 100 not out against Somerset as he shared a ninth-wicket partnership of 122 with Martin Bicknell
. His second century (101 not out) came in 2003 against Leicestershire
, and his third century (103 not out) came against Hampshire
in 2007 sharing in a stand of 177 with Azhar Mahmood
.
After 2003, Salisbury played increasingly less first-class cricket, and in 2004 he took just 14 wickets at an average of over 50. By 2005, he was making more appearances for the second eleven than for the first team. In 2006, Salisbury enjoyed the lower standard of cricket to be found in the County Championship
's second division, and formed a decent spin partnership with Nayan Doshi
, that played an important role in Surrey's promotion campaign.
Salisbury was released by Surrey at the end of the 2007 campaign, ending a ten year stint at the club. This was connected to Surrey's re-signing of Saqlain Mushtaq
from Sussex in the same month.
- following the county's failed attempt to lure Mushtaq Ahmed
in the summer.
as the second team coach.
Northampton
Northampton is a large market town and local government district in the East Midlands region of England. Situated about north-west of London and around south-east of Birmingham, Northampton lies on the River Nene and is the county town of Northamptonshire. The demonym of Northampton is...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
) is an English
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
former cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
er, one of the few leg-spinners to play Test cricket
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
for England in recent years. Salisbury played in fifteen Tests and four One Day Internationals betwwen 1992 and 2000. He played first-class cricket
First-class cricket
First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...
for Sussex
Sussex County Cricket Club
Sussex County Cricket Club is the oldest of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Sussex. The club was founded as a successor to Brighton Cricket Club which was a representative of the county of Sussex as a...
, Surrey
Surrey County Cricket Club
Surrey County Cricket Club is one of the 18 professional county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Surrey. Its limited overs team is called the Surrey Lions...
and Warwickshire
Warwickshire County Cricket Club
Warwickshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Warwickshire. Its limited overs team is called the Warwickshire Bears. Their kit colours are black and gold and the shirt sponsor...
in a career stretching from 1989 to 2008.
The cricket writer, Colin Bateman, commented, "the selection of Ian Salisbury against Pakistan in 1992 made cricket romantics rejoice. When he played at Lord's
Lord's Cricket Ground
Lord's Cricket Ground is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and Wales Cricket Board , the European Cricket Council and, until August 2005, the...
he became the first specialist leg-spinner selected for England since Robin Hobbs
Robin Hobbs
Robin Nicholas Stuart Hobbs is a former English cricketer, who played in seven Tests for England from 1967 to 1971. He played first-class cricket for both Essex and Glamorgan....
in 1971". The reality was that in his subsequent Test career, Salisbury's tally of twenty wickets cost almost 77 runs apiece.
Sussex and England A
Salisbury made his first-classFirst-class cricket
First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...
debut for Sussex
Sussex County Cricket Club
Sussex County Cricket Club is the oldest of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Sussex. The club was founded as a successor to Brighton Cricket Club which was a representative of the county of Sussex as a...
in 1989, taking the wicket of Ian Austin
Ian Austin (cricketer)
Ian David Austin was an English cricketer.He made his first-class debut for Lancashire County Cricket Club in 1987 and remained with that county for his entire career, scoring 3,778 runs at 27.98 and taking 262 wickets at 30.35 with his medium-pace seamers in...
in both innings. The following year he claimed 42 wickets, albeit at a somewhat expensive average
Bowling average
Bowling average is a statistic measuring the performance of bowlers in the sport of cricket.A bowler's bowling average is defined as the total number of runs conceded by the bowlers divided by the number of wickets taken by the bowler, so the lower the average the better. It is similar to earned...
of 49.40, but his potential was recognised with a spot on the England A tour to Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
and Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
, and the following winter (again with England A) he toured West Indies with some success, taking 14 wickets at 27.42.
1992 was Salisbury's breakthrough year, seeing him pick up 87 first-class wickets at under 29 apiece, including six five-wicket hauls. He was rewarded both with being named one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year
Wisden Cricketers of the Year
The Wisden Cricketers of the Year are cricketers selected for the honour by the annual publication Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, based primarily on their "influence on the previous English season"...
in the next year's Almanack, and with his Test match debut.
International career
His first appearance for England was in June 1992, against PakistanPakistani cricket team
The Pakistan cricket team is the national cricket team of Pakistan. Pakistan, represented by the Pakistan Cricket Board , is a full member of the International Cricket Council, and thus participates in , and cricket matches....
at Lord's
Lord's Cricket Ground
Lord's Cricket Ground is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and Wales Cricket Board , the European Cricket Council and, until August 2005, the...
, and he did not rise to the occasion well enough, though in the third Test he made an important half-century in the first-innings. He was then dropped for the rest of the summer.
This was to become a familiar pattern, as England regularly turned to Salisbury now that leg-spin was being made fashionable again by the emergence of Shane Warne
Shane Warne
Shane Keith Warne is a former Australian international cricketer widely regarded as one of the greatest bowlers in the history of the game. In 2000, he was selected by a panel of cricket experts as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Century, the only specialist bowler selected in the quintet...
, and just as regularly discarded him after a couple of matches; never in his fifteen Test career did he play more than three games in a row. He was not good enough to prosper at the highest level, with a career Test bowling average of 76.95, and he has been rated as the worst specialist bowler in Test cricket. He played his last Test in 2000/01 in Karachi
Karachi
Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...
, with a series aggregate of 1-193.
"Are you watching, Salisbury?"
One of the worst moments of Salisbury's career came at the OvalThe Oval
The Kia Oval, still commonly referred to by its original name of The Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, in the London Borough of Lambeth. In the past it was also sometimes called the Kennington Oval...
in 1998 in a one-off Test match against Sri Lanka. The visitors were cruising to an big score on a flat pitch and all of England's bowlers were toiling. Salisbury had come in for some particularly harsh treatment. England's then captain
Captain (cricket)
The captain of a cricket team often referred to as the skipper is the appointed leader, having several additional roles and responsibilities over and above those of a regular player...
, Alec Stewart
Alec Stewart
Alec James Stewart OBE is a retired English cricketer, a right-handed batsman-wicketkeeper and former captain of the England cricket team...
decided to give Mark Ramprakash
Mark Ramprakash
Mark Ravin Ramprakash is an English cricketer, playing for Surrey and England. A right-handed batsman, he initially made his name playing for Middlesex, and was selected for England aged 21...
a bowl, who managed a maiden over. One of the spectators in the Surrey pavilion cried out "Are you watching, Salisbury?" - referring to Salisbury's inability to bowl a maiden.
Surrey
In county cricketCounty cricket
County cricket is the highest level of domestic cricket in England and Wales. For the 2010 season, see 2010 English cricket season.-First-class counties:...
, however, Salisbury was a different man. He passed 50 wickets most seasons, and when he left Sussex for Surrey in 1997 he revelled in wickets that suited his bowling style. In successive seasons his bowling average improved: 31.20, 22.89, 22.19, and in 2000 he took 52 wickets at just 18.92, including a career-best 8-60 (and 11-101 in the match) at The Oval
The Oval
The Kia Oval, still commonly referred to by its original name of The Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, in the London Borough of Lambeth. In the past it was also sometimes called the Kennington Oval...
against Somerset
Somerset County Cricket Club
Somerset County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Somerset...
.
1999 saw the first of Salisbury's three first-class hundreds, exactly 100 not out against Somerset as he shared a ninth-wicket partnership of 122 with Martin Bicknell
Martin Bicknell
Martin Paul Bicknell is a former English cricketer. He played only four Test matches, but the last two, against South Africa in 2003, came ten years after the first two in the 1993 Ashes series. England had played 114 matches between his appearances, a record...
. His second century (101 not out) came in 2003 against Leicestershire
Leicestershire County Cricket Club
Leicestershire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the historic county of Leicestershire. It has also been representative of the county of Rutland....
, and his third century (103 not out) came against Hampshire
Hampshire County Cricket Club
Hampshire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Hampshire in cricket's County Championship. The club was founded in 1863 as a successor to the Hampshire county cricket teams and has played at the Antelope Ground from then until 1885, before moving to the County Ground where it...
in 2007 sharing in a stand of 177 with Azhar Mahmood
Azhar Mahmood
Azhar Mahmood Sagar is a Pakistani cricketer, . Originally his father objected to his interest in cricket, but later started to appreciate it seeing his accomplishments. As a teenager, Azhar was mentored by Irfan Bhatti who played a One Day International for Pakistan in the early 90’s...
.
After 2003, Salisbury played increasingly less first-class cricket, and in 2004 he took just 14 wickets at an average of over 50. By 2005, he was making more appearances for the second eleven than for the first team. In 2006, Salisbury enjoyed the lower standard of cricket to be found in the County Championship
County Championship
The County Championship is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales...
's second division, and formed a decent spin partnership with Nayan Doshi
Nayan Doshi
Nayan Dilip Doshi is an English cricketer, who was released by Derbyshire. He is the son of Dilip Doshi, who is a former Indian Test bowler...
, that played an important role in Surrey's promotion campaign.
Salisbury was released by Surrey at the end of the 2007 campaign, ending a ten year stint at the club. This was connected to Surrey's re-signing of Saqlain Mushtaq
Saqlain Mushtaq
Saqlain Mushtaq is a Pakistani cricketer, regarded as one of the finest off spin bowlers of all time.He is best known for pioneering the "doosra", which he employed to great effect during his career...
from Sussex in the same month.
Warwickshire
In November 2007, Salisbury signed a two year contract with WarwickshireWarwickshire County Cricket Club
Warwickshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Warwickshire. Its limited overs team is called the Warwickshire Bears. Their kit colours are black and gold and the shirt sponsor...
- following the county's failed attempt to lure Mushtaq Ahmed
Mushtaq Ahmed
Mushtaq Ahmed is a retired Pakistani cricketer who specialised as a leg spin bowler. He was known for his hard-to-pick googly. He memorably trapped Graeme Hick in front with one during the 1992 World Cup final. He was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1997...
in the summer.
Retirement and coaching
In March 2009, at the age of 39, Salisbury announced his retirement from first class cricket. Salisbury initially accepted a two year extension to his playing contract with Warwickshire, but instead decided to end his playing career, and take up a role as a coach with his former county, Surrey. He replaced the South Africa-bound Nadeem ShahidNadeem Shahid
Nadeem 'Nads' Shahid is a former English first-class cricketer who played for Essex and Surrey. In his 148 game career as a right-handed batsman, he made 6453 runs at 31.02 with 9 hundreds....
as the second team coach.