Player Profile...Chris Cairns

Hi everyone,
I have decided to introduce Player Profiles to my blog-site. I randomly pick players from each cricket nation and it doesn't matter whether they play test cricket or not, no cricketing nation will be excluded, however due to the number of cricketing nations out there (in excess of 100), having a player profile from each country will take some time, so please be patient :)

The 1st player profile is going to be about Chris Cairns. Chris Cairns was a very accomplished cricketer in both the One-Day and the Test arena's. His career was blighted by numerous injuries, paticulary his back and knees. His career would've been longer if these injuries did not plague him the way they did. Here are some information and statistics about his career below:

Chris Cains brilliant century against India in the final of the 2000 ICC Champions Trophy -->

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Christopher Lance Cairns (Chris) Developed from a rebel in his early days in cricket to being something of a senior statesman, which was noticed by the role he played in the players' strike of 2002. It was him that played one of the key roles in ending that strike.

On his day he was one of the top all-rounders in the world ( he was Wisden Cricketer of the year in 2000), when he was fit that is. He had a brilliant career full of many highlights, but unfortunately some low-lights, of which some were factors that physically blighted his career.

Some of his many highlights include beating Sir Viv Richards record for the most 6's in a Test career (he got 87 in total). He achieved this landmark at Lords in the 2004 Test series in England, and in 2000 he played a man-of-the-match key role in helping New Zealand to win the Champions Trophy final in Nairobi, scoring 104 n.o. It was said he batted with one leg which was due to a knee injury he had at the time. His efforts in that game typified the type of cricketer he was, a very gutsy, determined one who always gave his best even through the struggles and rough times. He also played superbly in the 2001/2002 V.B series in Australia involving the host, New Zealand and South Africa. The New Zealand side managed to tame Australia throughout the series to reach the final against the Africans but of which the latter overcame the New Zealand side. I still think it was a brilliant series by N.Z, and also Chris Cairns.

He also played county Cricket in Nottinghamshire (in England) from 1989 to 1996 and returned for a second stint in 2003. He was a dedicated player for them also, and was highly regarded amongst his peers there (and also in his national side).

Then it was on January 22nd 2006 he retired from all levels of cricket ( although he later joined the non-sanctioned Indian Cricket League in 2007), at a press conference that was full of emotion. The Twenty20 game against the West Indies on February 16th 2006 was his Last game for any New Zealand side. He will be remembered as a cricketing great and he will go down in history as one of the best all-rounders in cricket.

To see his career statistics, Click HERE I used material from Cricinfo to research a little on Chris Cairns history.

The next player profile article will be of a recent retiree, stay tuned to find out who this is :)