Lance Cairns
Encyclopedia
Bernard Lance Cairns is a former all-rounder
All-rounder
An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a few batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are considered specialists...

 who played for the New Zealand cricket team
New Zealand cricket team
The New Zealand cricket team, nicknamed the Black Caps, are the national cricket team representing New Zealand. They played their first in 1930 against England in Christchurch, New Zealand, becoming the fifth country to play Test cricket. It took the team until 1955–56 to win a Test, against the...

, and is the father of New Zealand cricketer Chris Cairns.

He was a member of both the one-day
One-day cricket
Limited overs cricket, also known as one-day cricket and in a slightly different context as List A cricket, is a version of the sport of cricket in which a match is generally completed in one day, whereas Test and first-class matches can take up to five days to complete...

 and Test
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...

 New Zealand teams between 1974 and 1985. He also appeared for Central Districts, Northern Districts
Northern Districts Knights
The Yahoo!Xtra Northern Knights are one of six New Zealand first class cricket teams that make up New Zealand Cricket.It is based in the northern half of the North Island of New Zealand...

 and Otago
Otago Volts
The Otago Volts are a first class cricket team representing the Otago Cricket Association, one of six major associations that make up New Zealand Cricket....

 in New Zealand domestic cricket. He was also the professional for Bishop Auckland in the North
Yorkshire and South Durham League in the North East of England.

6 sixes at the Melbourne Cricket Ground - 1982-83 season

New Zealand were favourites coming into the finals of the World Series Cup
World Series Cup
The World Series Cup was the name of the One Day International cricket tournament that took place in Australia every season between Australia and two touring teams from 1979-80 to 1995-96. The tournament was renamed the World Series from 1990-1. This was the very first of the One Day International ...

, a tournament heavily hyped as a chance for New Zealand to gain 'revenge' after the 'underarm' incident in 1980/81. The 1982/83 series saw New Zealand achieve an impressive run of victories in the ten match qualifying round with Australia and England. This included three consecutive wins over Australia and a famous match in Adelaide
Adelaide Oval
The Adelaide Oval is a sports ground in Adelaide, South Australia, located in the parklands between the Central Business District and North Adelaide...

, where two world records were broken on the same day. New Zealand scored a world record 297-6, in beating England's 296-5.

Cairns set the scene for a dramatic run chase with a brutal 49 off 24 balls, which included three sixes off the hapless English spinners. However, it took a match-winning seventh-wicket partnership of 121 by Jeremy Coney
Jeremy Coney
Jeremy Vernon Coney MBE is a former New Zealand cricketer, who played 52 Test matches and 88 ODIs for New Zealand, captaining them in 15 Tests and 25 ODIs. He was one of New Zealand's most successful batsmen, at least by average, and he made 16 fifties, but centuries often eluded him and he had to...

 (47 not out) and 'Man of the Match' Richard Hadlee
Richard Hadlee
Sir Richard John Hadlee, MBE is a former New Zealand cricketer who played provincial cricket for Canterbury, Nottinghamshire and Tasmania. He is the son of Walter Hadlee, and the brother of Dayle and Barry Hadlee. His former wife Karen also played international cricket for New Zealand.Hadlee was...

 (79), to bring New Zealand home for an 'impossible' victory, watched by nearly 1.5 million Kiwis on television, almost half the population and a record for a sporting telecast at the time.

After a rain-affected First Final in Sydney
Sydney Cricket Ground
The Sydney Cricket Ground is a sports stadium in Sydney in Australia. It is used for Australian football, Test cricket, One Day International cricket, some rugby league and rugby union matches and is the home ground for the New South Wales Blues cricket team and the Sydney Swans of the Australian...

, New Zealand went to the MCG
McG
Joseph McGinty Nichol , better known as McG, is an American director and producer of film and television, as well as a former record producer....

 one-nil down in the best of three finals series. Without the injured Hadlee (who missed both Finals), New Zealand had collapsed, beaten and demoralised, at 44-6, chasing Australia's score of 302-8. Dennis Lillee
Dennis Lillee
Dennis Keith Lillee, AM, MBE is a former Australian cricketer rated as the "outstanding fast bowler of his generation"...

, who had just waved off New Zealand's last recognised batsman, awaited the arrival of Cairns.

Lillee's first ball was a bouncer that hit Cairns on the head. The batsman's response was to hit two sixes in three balls off Ken MacLeay
Ken MacLeay
Kenneth Hervey MacLeay is a former English born Australian cricketer.He was a all-rounder who played 16 One Day Internationals for Australia between 1983 and 1987...

, before hitting two consecutive sixes off Rodney Hogg
Rodney Hogg
Rodney Malcolm Hogg is a former Victorian, South Australian and Australian cricketer. He was a fast bowler. Hogg played in 38 Tests and 71 ODIs between 1978 and 1985. In Tests he took 123 wickets at an average of 28.47.-Career:...

, and in the next over, doing the same to Lillee. The highlight was undoubtedly a one-handed shot off Lillee, which soared over the fine leg fence. Cairns' dismissal was an anti-climax; out for 52, offering a simple catch to Steve Smith at cover off the bowling of Geoff Lawson
Geoff Lawson (cricketer)
Geoffrey Francis Lawson, OAM is a former Australian cricketer and the former coach of the Pakistan cricket team....

.

"He backs off again and thrashes that one! And that's cleared Graeme Wood
Graeme Wood
Graeme Malcolm Wood is a former Australian cricketer who played in 59 Tests and 83 ODIs from 1978 to 1989. He scored nine Test centuries in his career and it was a West Australian record until 2001-02 when it was passed by Justin Langer....

's head at mid-off! That's the sixth one! That must be an incredible bat he's got! It must be made of extremely good English willow."


"Very heavy English willow ! And there goes Excalibur into action again! Straight over the top of long-off, one of the most difficult shots in the book and umpire Tony Crafter
Tony Crafter
Anthony Ronald Crafter, , was an Australian Test cricket match umpire.He umpired 33 Test matches between 1979 and 1992, the highest number by an Australian umpire to that time...

's arms are growing heavy, he's been putting them above his head so often he's getting tired!"
- TCN Nine
Nine Network
The Nine Network , is an Australian television network with headquarters based in Willoughby, a suburb located on the North Shore of Sydney. For 50 years since television's inception in Australia, between 1956 and 2006, it was the most watched television network in Australia...

 commentators Ian Chappell
Ian Chappell
Ian Michael Chappell is a former cricketer who played for South Australia and Australia. He captained Australia between 1971 and 1975 before taking a central role in the breakaway World Series Cricket organisation...

 and Frank Tyson
Frank Tyson
Frank Holmes Tyson is an England cricketer of the 1950s who became a journalist and cricket commentator after he emigrated to Australia in 1960. Nicknamed "Typhoon Tyson" by the press he was regarded by many commentators as one of the fastest bowlers ever seen in cricket and took 76 wickets in...

, 13 February 1983.

New Zealand eventually lost the match by 149 runs, and the Finals series 2-0, to an Australian team that had been markedly inferior in the preceding qualifying stages of the competition.

Despite Cairns' heroics (he also hit a spectacular six over cover off Lawson in the First Final at the SCG) Richard Hadlee's absence from both finals was probably the reason for New Zealand's 'shattered dream'.

Nevertheless, the New Zealand team, and Cairns in particular, received unprecedented adulation when they returned home for a three-match series against England, who had lost the Ashes
The Ashes
The Ashes is a Test cricket series played between England and Australia. It is one of the most celebrated rivalries in international cricket and dates back to 1882. It is currently played biennially, alternately in the United Kingdom and Australia. Cricket being a summer sport, and the venues...

 2-1 and had failed to make the WSC Finals in their recently completed Australian tour. England were desperate to salvage something from their tour down under and 'The Rothmans Cup' was the last prize on offer.

New Zealand whitewashed the hapless 'Poms', winning with three memorable performances to sold out crowds in Auckland
Eden Park
Eden Park is the biggest stadium in Auckland, New Zealand. It is used primarily for rugby union in winter and cricket in summer . The ground also occasionally hostts rugby league matches. To accommodate all three sports, the cricket pitch is removable...

, Wellington
Basin Reserve
The Basin Reserve , is a cricket ground in Wellington, New Zealand, used for Test, first-class and one-day cricket. Some argue that its proximity to the city, its Historic Place status and its age make it the most famous cricket ground in New Zealand...

 and Christchurch. Cairns was again the star. He hit sixes in all three games, with one of them leaving Wellington's Basin Reserve and ending up in a busy street outside the ground.

Cairns' career

In a domestic match, for Otago
Otago
Otago is a region of New Zealand in the south of the South Island. The region covers an area of approximately making it the country's second largest region. The population of Otago is...

 v Wellington
Wellington
Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...

, he hit 110, his only first-class century, in 51 balls hitting 9 sixes in an hour. He scored 928 Test Match and 987 ODI runs at more than a run a ball.

He was also known for the unusual bat he wielded throughout much of his career. Known as "Excalibur", the shoulders of the bat were planed down to form a conical rather than rectangular shape.

Cairns was a swing bowler with an unorthodox 'front on' action. He took 130 Test Match wickets and 89 ODI wickets. He took ten wickets in New Zealand's first ever win on English soil, at Headingley
Headingley Stadium
Headingley Stadium is a sporting complex in the Leeds suburb of Headingley in West Yorkshire, England. It is the home of Yorkshire County Cricket Club, rugby league team Leeds Rhinos and rugby union team Leeds Carnegie ....

 in 1983.

In the 1983/84 home series against England Cairns took his best test figures of 7-143 off 45 overs in the first test at the Basin Reserve
Basin Reserve
The Basin Reserve , is a cricket ground in Wellington, New Zealand, used for Test, first-class and one-day cricket. Some argue that its proximity to the city, its Historic Place status and its age make it the most famous cricket ground in New Zealand...

, Wellington. After New Zealand's modest first innings total of 219, Cairns took the first five English wickets with only 115 on the board, which put the home side in a strong position on day two. However, a spectacular sixth wicket, 232 run, partnership between Ian Botham
Ian Botham
Sir Ian Terence Botham OBE is a former England Test cricketer and Test team captain, and current cricket commentator. He was a genuine all-rounder with 14 centuries and 383 wickets in Test cricket, and remains well-known by his nickname "Beefy"...

 (138) and Derek Randall
Derek Randall
Derek William Randall is an English former cricketer, who played first-class cricket for Nottinghamshire, and Tests and ODIs for England in the late 1970s and early 1980s....

 (164) put the visitors in command on day three with New Zealand facing a tough battle over the remaining two days to save the test.

At 402-8, only 158 runs ahead of England early on day five, defeat for New Zealand seemed likely when Cairns joined Jeremy Coney
Jeremy Coney
Jeremy Vernon Coney MBE is a former New Zealand cricketer, who played 52 Test matches and 88 ODIs for New Zealand, captaining them in 15 Tests and 25 ODIs. He was one of New Zealand's most successful batsmen, at least by average, and he made 16 fifties, but centuries often eluded him and he had to...

 (174*) at the wicket. In perhaps Cairns' finest test innings, (64), he shared a record ninth wicket partnership of 218 with Coney who went on to score his long awaited, maiden test century. Cairns, although hitting 10 fours and a six, played a rearguard innings best remembered for its uncharacteristic grit and controlled determination, which helped New Zealand achieve a famous draw against the odds.

The New Zealand total of 537 was a record against England and it set the foundation for an emphatic second test win by an innings and 132 runs at Lancaster Park, Christchurch, where the visitors failed to reach 100 in either innings. After a drawn third test at Eden Park
Eden Park
Eden Park is the biggest stadium in Auckland, New Zealand. It is used primarily for rugby union in winter and cricket in summer . The ground also occasionally hostts rugby league matches. To accommodate all three sports, the cricket pitch is removable...

, Auckland, New Zealand achieved its first test series win over England.

Cairns suffered a horrific injury when he came out to bat without a helmet against Pakistan in the Third Test in Dunedin
Dunedin
Dunedin is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the principal city of the Otago Region. It is considered to be one of the four main urban centres of New Zealand for historic, cultural, and geographic reasons. Dunedin was the largest city by territorial land area until...

 in 1984/85. He was felled by a sickening blow to the back of the head from 19 year old paceman Wasim Akram
Wasim Akram
Wasim Akram is a former Pakistani left arm fast bowler and left-handed batsman in cricketer and model. who represented the Pakistan national cricket team in Test cricket and One Day International matches....

. After retiring hurt, Cairns was hospitalised with a suspected hairline fracture of the skull and complained of 'dizzy spells' for months afterwards. In testament to his courage, Cairns was 'padded up', this time with a helmet, ready to return to the crease, as New Zealand fought another famous rearguard action to win the test and series. History showed he was not required as Jeremy Coney (111*), this time supported by number eleven Ewen Chatfield
Ewen Chatfield
Ewen John Chatfield is a former cricketer who played 43 Tests and 114 One Day Internationals for New Zealand. A medium-pace bowler, his chief weapon was his accuracy, giving him economical bowling figures, although he occasionally would come in for punishment in the late stages of limited overs...

 (21*), took New Zealand to victory by two wickets.

Cairns recovered to play in the World Championship of Cricket in Sydney and Melbourne in February 1985. A highlight for Cairns was his fine innings against eventual champions India in the semi-final at the SCG (39 out of a total of 206, but with no sixes). In March he left for his last major tour as a frontline player for New Zealand, a harrowing trip to the West Indies where New Zealand lost heavily against the often brutal fast bowling of the homeside. Cairns played in only the first two tests of the four test series taking only five wickets at an average of 63.00. At aged 36 his decline as an international player seemed inevitable.

His final series for New Zealand was a personal anti-climax for this immensely popular cricketer. The historic 1985/86 test series win in Australia saw Cairns play only in the deciding third test in Perth. Although playing in his usual spirited fashion, Cairns failed to take a wicket, nor score a run, in this his final international game. Despite Cairns' disappointment, New Zealand won by six wickets to take the series 2-1, and it was fitting, considering his unselfish service to New Zealand cricket since 1974, that Cairns was part of this 'ultimate' triumph.

Still a sentimental crowd favourite, he was nevertheless left out of the New Zealand World Series Cup squad which returned to Australia in January 1986. This unpopular decision, albeit inevitable due to injury and loss of form, spelled the end of his international career. Like long standing captain Geoff Howarth
Geoff Howarth
Geoffrey "Geoff" Philip Howarth OBE is a former New Zealand cricketer, who remains the only New Zealand captain to have positive win-loss records in both Test cricket and ODI cricket. Howarth played some Test cricket with his elder brother, Hedley Howarth, but most of his 47-Test career did not...

 at the beginning of the summer, Cairns was forced into retirement, and somewhat controversially denied the dignity of choosing his own 'time to go'.

Following his retirement from cricket, Cairns concentrated on his golf skills and became a low-handicap golfer known for his extremely long drives. He represented Poverty Bay-East Coast at New Zealand Masters tournaments.

Lance Cairns is married to Sue. In 1993 their daughter Louise was killed when a truck hit the train she was travelling in. He was the subject of an episode of the TVNZ production 'This is your life
This Is Your Life
This Is Your Life is an American television documentary series broadcast on NBC, originally hosted by its producer, Ralph Edwards from 1952 to 1961. In the show, the host surprises a guest, and proceeds to take them through their life in front of an audience including friends and family.Edwards...

' in (1998? which was presented by Paul Holmes
Paul Holmes (broadcaster)
Paul Holmes CNZM is a radio and television broadcaster in New Zealand. he hosts Q+A on TV ONE, and the Saturday morning radio show on Newstalk ZB, where for 23 years until December 2008 he hosted the weekday breakfast show, the long-standing number one rating breakfast show...

. He has two grandsons, Thomas and Bram, children of son Chris and his former partner Carin.

He was profoundly deaf since age 17, which he blamed on working in noisy conditions. In December 2009 he was fitted with a cochlear implant
Cochlear implant
A cochlear implant is a surgically implanted electronic device that provides a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing...

.

External links

  • Lance Cairns Cricinfo Statistics
  • Lance Cairns - 6 sixes in 10 balls - Veoh
  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Xp-aOr8LO0 Six over cover - First Final 1983
  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABVP4zvpMFw Six sixes - Second Final 1983 Part 1
  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73Fg5Uvo-ME&feature=related - Six sixes Part 2
  • http://www.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/1980S/1982-83/OD_TOURNEYS/WSC/
  • http://www.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/1980S/1982-83/OD_TOURNEYS/WSC/ENG_NZ_WSC_ODI11_29JAN1983.html
  • http://www.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/1980S/1982-83/OD_TOURNEYS/WSC/AUS_NZ_WSC_ODI-FINAL2_13FEB1983.html
  • http://www.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/1980S/1982-83/ENG_IN_NZ/
  • http://www.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/1980S/1983-84/ENG_IN_NZ/
  • http://www.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/1980S/1984-85/PAK_IN_NZ/
  • http://www.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/1980S/1984-85/OD_TOURNEYS/WCC/NZ_IND_WCC_ODI-SEMI1_05MAR1985.html
  • http://www.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/1980S/1985-86/NZ_IN_AUS/
  • http://www.3news.co.nz/Overcoming-deafness-Part-two---Lance-Cairns/tabid/367/articleID/173509/Default.aspx - Overcoming-deafness: Lance-Cairns
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