Ian Salisbury
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 England (Eng) |
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| Batting style | Right-handed batsman (RHB) | |
| Bowling type | Right-arm leg-break and googly (LBG) | |
| Tests | ODIs | |
| Matches | 15 | 4 |
| Runs scored | 368 | 7 |
| Batting average | 16.72 | 7.00 |
| 100s/50s | 0/1 | 0/0 |
| Top score | 50 | 5 |
| Overs bowled | 415.2 | 31 |
| Wickets | 20 | 5 |
| Bowling average | 76.95 | 35.39 |
| 5 wickets in innings | 0 | 0 |
| 10 wickets in match | 0 | N/A |
| Best bowling | 4-163 | 3-41 |
| Catches/stumpings | 5/0 | 1/0 |
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As of 9 August 2005 |
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Ian David Kenneth Salisbury (born 21 January 1970 in Northampton) is an English cricketer, one of the few leg-spinners to play Test cricket for England in recent years.
Salisbury made his first-class debut for Sussex in 1989, taking the wicket of Ian Austin in both innings. The following year he claimed 42 wickets, albeit at a somewhat expensive average of 49.40, but his potential was recognised with a spot on the England A tour to Pakistan and Sri Lanka, and the following winter (again with England A) he toured West Indies with some success, taking 14 wickets at 27.42.
1992 was Salisbury's breakthrough year, seeing him pick up 87 first-class wickets at under 29 apiece, including six five-wicket hauls. He was rewarded both with a Wisden Cricketer of the Year spot in the next year's Almanack, and with his Test debut. The latter occurred in June 1992, against Pakistan at Lord's, and he rose to the occasion well enough. He took five wickets in the match, his first Test victim being Javed Miandad. Salisbury kept his place for the third Test, and made an important half-century in the first-innings, but he was then dropped for the rest of the summer.
This was to become a familiar pattern, as England regularly turned to Salisbury now that leg-spin was being made fashionable again by the emergence of Shane Warne, and just as regularly discarded him after a couple of matches; never in his 15-Test career did he play more than three games in a row. He was simply too predictable and not fearsome enough to prosper at the highest level, and his career Test bowling average of 76.95 makes for painful reading. He played his last Test in 2000/01 in Karachi, and a series aggregate of 1-193 ensured that there would be no way back for him.
In county cricket, however, Salisbury was a different man. He passed 50 wickets most seasons, and when he left Sussex for Surrey in 1997 he revelled in wickets that suited his bowling style. In successive seasons his bowling average improved: 31.20, 25.89, 21.19, and in 2000 he took 52 wickets at just 18.92, including a career-best 8-60 (and 12-101 in the match) at The Oval against Somerset.
1999 saw the first of Salisbury's two first-class hundreds, exactly 100 not out against Somerset as he shared a ninth-wicket partnership of 122 with Martin Bicknell. The other century (101 not out) came in 2003 against Leicestershire, and this time he shared in an unbroken ninth-wicket stand of 99 with Saqlain Mushtaq.
After 2003, Salisbury played increasingly little first-class cricket, and in 2004 he took just 14 wickets at an average of over 50. By 2005, he was making more appearances for the second eleven than for the first team.
