Managing Director, London County Cricket Club
Neil Burns played first-class cricket for Essex, Somerset, Leicestershire & Western Province in a 20-year career from 1983. This included a stint as Player/Coach & Director of Cricket for Bucks.
He holds 2 world-records for wicket-keeping:
Most stumpings in a 1-day innings (4 Somerset v Kent 1991)
Highest aggregate of runs in first-class match without conceding a bye (Surrey v Leics 2002)
He also holds the Leicestershire wicket-keeping record for most dismissals in a first-class innings:
(7 Leics v Somerset 2001)
He has played and coached all round the world and runs the NBC Cricket Academy in Cape Town.
Since his retirement from first-class cricket in 2002, he has forged a successful sports management and coaching consultancy. As the Managing Director of London County Cricket Club, his passion for Cricket and its future provides the foundation to enable him to help develop people to grace the game.
Cricket Career
First Class Teams Played For:
Essex; Leicestershire; MCC; Somerset; Western Province
First-Class Matches Played: 205
List A One Day Matches Played: 231
Total runs scored: 10,175
Highest score: 166
Total dismissals: 802
Neil Burns became a professional cricketer in 1982 upon leaving school at 16. He was part of Essex’s Championship winning squads until 1987 when he moved to Somerset to play regular first team cricket. His FirstClass debut was in South Africa for Western Province B in 1985. His English First-Class debut was in 1986 at The Oval (on Royal Wedding Day) for Essex against in Surrey when on each occasion of his debut innings, he joined world record-holding Test run-scorer Allan Border at the crease. The match was drawn but Essex went on to become County Champions again later that summer. He went on to enjoy further success with Somerset and Leicestershire with a period in between as Director of Cricket (Excellence) for Bucks Cricket where he was also Player/Coach for the Bucks 1st XI in the Minor Counties Championship. He averaged 50 with the bat in Minor Counties Championship and 30.47 in First-Class Cricket with 7 centuries and 40 half-centuries in addition to his primary role as wicket-keeper.
He once took 8 stumpings in a match for Essex 2nd XI v Kent 2nd XI at Dartford.
He holds two world records for wicket-keeping:
4 stumpings in a one day innings (joint): Somerset v Kent, Taunton, 1991
Highest aggregate score in a match (986) without conceding a bye: Surrey v Leicestershire, The Oval, 2002.
He was the leading wicket-keeper in English First-Class cricket topping the dismissals list in successive seasons (2001, 2002) before retiring. It is fitting (in a symmetrical way) that he played his final First-Class match at The Oval, the ground where he also made his First-Class debut. WG Grace, (The Great Cricketer) also made his First-Class bow and exit at The Oval, as well as his Test debut.
His passion for coaching throughout his professional life, has taken him around the world and his success both in South Africa and England in developing young players led him to re-forming WG Grace’s London County Cricket Club as a professional mentoring organization in 2004. His relationships with pre-eminent Professional Coaches in several sports and Business Leaders have contributed to expanding his horizons and transforming the way he contributes towards the development of others.
|
