Blessed with immense natural talent, Lance Cairns never found the need to study or analyse his game deeply. The very first Test match that he saw was the one he played in. He also bowled off the wrong foot but these things hardly mattered for he was able to swing the ball prodigiously. He also suffered from a severe impairment in hearing due to exposure to loud noises as a child. He was also a hard hitting batsman lower down the order and made a lot of useful contributions with the bat too.

His six hitting prowess in domestic ODI games and in the World series of cricket made him an instant crowd puller too. Lance pursued golf after having been forced out of the NZ team due to a dip in form. His son, Chris Cairns was also a cricketer in the same mould as his father and served NZ with a lot of distinction.

By Ganesh Chandrasekaran