Allan Joseph Lamb (born 20 June 1954) is a South African-born former English cricketer, who played for the first-class teams of Western Province and Northamptonshire. Making his Test debut in 1982, he was a fixture in the Test and One-Day International team for the next decade. He represented England at three World Cups. He served as captain of Northamptonshire, and also captained England in three Test matches. He was a part of the English squads which finished as runners-up at the 1987 Cricket World Cup and as runners-up at the 1992 Cricket World Cup.
Allan Lamb was born to British parents in Langebaanweg, Union of South Africa. His father Mickey was a journeyman club bowler. Lamb attended Wynberg Boys' High School and Abbots College. He has one son called Richard.
Domestic cricket in South Africa
In January 1973, Allan made his first team debut at the age of 18 when he played for the Western Province in the Currie Cup. He batted at number three and made 59 and 36 against the Eastern Province. He then had a two-year absence from the game and joined the National Service in the South African Air Force building airfields before returning to the club. Western Province then experimented with Lamb as an opener, at 5 and 6 but 4 was always his true and regular position in the batting order for Western Province. Lamb then had one year playing for Orange Free State, where he scored his highest first-class score of 294, before moving back to the Western Province for the rest of his South African domestic career.
County cricket with Northamptonshire
Lamb came to England along with two young other cricketers, Peter Kirsten and Garth Le Roux, in search of fame and a county contract and it was Northamptonshire who signed Lamb as a relatively unknown overseas player in 1978. Lamb ended the 1980 season with 1,797 runs and first place in the national batting averages with 66.55. He also took the Gold Award for his match-winning 72 in the Benson and Hedges Cup final against Essex. He was also a member of the 1992 NatWest Trophy winning team. In his final season as captain in 1995 he very nearly took Northamptonshire to their first County Championship with 12 wins in their final 17 matches.
Lamb spent 18 seasons at the County Ground between 1978 and 1995, and scored more than 30,000 runs in 600 appearances for the club across first-class and limited overs cricket.
In 2001, Northamptonshire honoured him by naming a room in the club's Indoor Centre 'The Allan Lamb Room'.
In a 2020 poll he was named Northamptonshire's greatest player of all time.
In 1970, South Africa were banned from international cricket indefinitely because of its government's policy of apartheid. The South-African born Lamb emigrated to England. Since his parents were born in England, Lamb qualified for the national team selection. Lamb was named a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1981 and was rewarded for some great consistency at the domestic level when he was picked into the England side in 1982 for the tour to India after having made his ODI debut a few days earlier.
England hosted India for a 3 Test series. Lamb made his debut for the first Test at Lords. England won the match by 7 wickets and Lamb was not out when the winning runs were scored. He retained his place for the next two Tests, scoring his maiden Test century in the 3rd Test.
Lamb played all three Tests of the series against Pakistan. England won the series 2-1 and would be their last series win against Pakistan for 18 years. Lamb scored 48 in 6 innings, beginning a low run of scores against them.
Lamb's first overseas International tour was the 1982/83 Ashes. He played all 5 Tests scoring 414 at 41.
Lamb scored 392 in the 4 Tests, the second most in the series with an unbeaten century in the first and last Tests.
New Zealand vs England 1983/84
In the return 3-match series, Lamb could only manage 82 runs in 4 innings.
Lamb’s poor run of form continued as he scored 78 runs in 5 innings.
Lamb’s first encounter with the West Indies and he began his streak of good form against them. While England lost 5-0 the first and only time England had suffered a home defeat like this, he was their leading scorer with 386 runs including a series-high three centuries.