Allan Border - Interesting Facts, Trivia, And Records About 'Captain Grumpy'

Allan Border, who celebrates his birthday on 27th July, is one of the finest batters for Australia and a leader who shaped his country's dominating future in cricket. 'A.B', as he was often called, is inducted into the ICC's Hall of Fame. His importance to the game is recognized annually when the Australian Player of the Year receives the Allan Border Medal.

Here are some interesting facts, trivia, and records about Allan Border: 

1) Border was born in Cremorne, a suburb near New South Wales. His father, John, was a wool classer and his mother, Sheila, was the proprietor of a corner store. He has three brothers. 

2) Border used to work as a clerk in a film library of BHP before he resigned to play in the Gloucestershire Western League in England in 1977.  Allan also worked as an insurance agent in Sydney. 

3) In 1978-79, Border got picked to play for Australia against England. In a test match at Perth, he got out LBW and was not happy with the decision. Angrily, he entered the dressing room hurling abuses at the English only to realize that he had entered the wrong room. Embarrassed with it all, Border then apologized to the England manager and the other players before going to the home team’s designated room.

4) Allan Border was the fastest Australian to reach 1000 test runs. It took him only 354 days in international cricket to reach the milestone. 

5) During a tour to India in 1979, Border ran into trouble with the Indian army when the Australian team was in Srinagar for a tour game. During the night, Allan wanted to scare Kim Hughes, who was in his room three or four stories up from Border's, and while on his way, the army stopped him from behind. He was only allowed to go after he shouted that he was an Australian cricketer. Border was then lectured by the Australian manager Bob Merriman and some of the locals of Srinagar the next morning. 

6) Border was the second player to pass 10000 test runs after India's Sunil Gavaskar. 

7) Allan Border played 153 consecutive test matches for Australia - a record - which was broken by Alastair Cook after 24 years in June 2018. 

8) Two cricket grounds have been renamed in Border's honor. The Oval in Mosman, where he played his early grade cricket, was renamed the Allan Border Oval. The Neumann Oval in Brisbane has been renamed Allan Border Field. 

9) Allan Border played 156 test matches in which he scored 11174 runs, including 27 centuries. In 273 ODIs, Border made 6524 runs. In 385 first-class matches, the left-hander amassed 27131 runs, including 70 hundreds. His 9355 List-A runs came in 382 matches. 

10) The former Australian captain "owes a huge debt of gratitude" to former England cricketer Barry Knight, who made Border realize his talent and helped him in training during his teenage years.