Christopher Lance Cairns

Christopher Lance Cairns, ONZM, (born June 13, 1970) is a champion all-rounder who plays for the New Zealand international cricket team, the Black Caps, and son of former New Zealand cricketer Lance Cairns. He starred in both the One-day and Test New Zealand teams, as well as the Canterbury New Zealand domestic championship team.

Cairns is a brutal batsman who can hit big sixes straight down the ground when on song and in his earlier days was an intelligent fast-medium bowler, however, persistent injuries forced him to drop his pace and rely more on his hard-to-read slower ball.

With the bat, Cairns has been the author of some of New Zealand cricket’s most memorable innings, including his unbeaten 102 to win the final of the 2001 Champions’ Trophy for NZ, and his 158 from just 172 balls in a test against South Africa in 2004. Cairns holds the world record for most sixes in tests (87), and shares the NZ record for fastest century in ODIs (75 balls). With the ball, Cairns’ finest performance was 7/27 against the West Indies in a test in 1998, and he is New Zealand’s second highest wicket taker in tests, after Richard Hadlee. He is also one of only 6 players to have reached the all-rounder’s double of 200 wickets and 3000 runs.

Cairns retired from the New Zealand Test team in 2004, however he still plays ODI’s. He was also part of the ICC World XI that played in the World Cricket Tsunami Appeal matches.

Cairns was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in June 2005 in recognition of his contribution to cricket.