Border turns 61

27th July (CRICKETNMORE) - Former Australian Crickter and Captain, Allan Robert Border was born on 27 July 1955 in New South Wales, Australia. He played 156 Test matches in his career, a record he holds until it was passed by fellow Australian Steve Waugh. He holds the world record for most consecutive test starts with 153 tests. Under his captaincy Australia won their first World Cup in 1987.

Border made his test debut against England in 1978. He was primarily a left hand batsman but also achieved success as a part-time left arm spinner. Border scored 11,174 Test runs with an average of over 50 (a world record until it was passed by Brian Lara in 2005). He hit 27 centuries in his Test career. He retired as Australia's most capped player and leading run-scorer in both Tests and ODIs. His last test was against South Africa in 1994. 

His Australian record for test match runs stood for 15 years before Ricky Ponting overtook him during the Third Ashes Test against England in July 2009. He also played 273 ODIs for Australia amassing 6,524 runs at an approx average of 31

Border was one of the 55 inaugural inductees of the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame. He was one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1982.

Post retirement, Border continued playing first-class cricket. In 1994–95.He served as an Australian selector from 1998 until his resignation from the panel in 2005. Border once again became a selector in 2006 only to step down four months later due to his growing business commitments.

In his honour Cricket Australia started giving Allan Border Medal with the inaugural award having been won by Glenn McGrath in 2000. To acknowledge his immense contribution, The India–Australia test series has been named as the Border Gavaskar Trophy. Also read  Which Player won the South Africa Player of the Year award?

Border wrote an autobiography entitled Beyond Ten Thousand: My Life Story, published in 1993. In 2000, he was inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame and was also named twelfth man in Australia's "Greatest ever ODI Team.

Team CRICKETNMORE wishes Allan Border a very Happy Birthday.

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Gufran Naved