Lee Irvine

Who is Lee Irvine?

Brian Lee Irvine, born on 9 March 1944 in Durban, South Africa was a cricketer who played four Tests for South Africa in 1969–70 in the last Test series played by South Africa before official sporting links were broken over the apartheid policy.

Irvine was a hard-hitting left-handed middle-order batsman, a fine outfielder who became a regular wicketkeeper and an occasional right-arm medium pace bowler. He played one first-class match as an 18-year-old for a Western Province XI against the International Cavaliers – he turned 19 during the match. But he did not then reappear in first-class cricket until he became a regular in the Natal side in the 1965–66 season.

After two seasons of modest batting, Irvine made a big advance in the 1967–68 season, scoring 504 runs in the South African domestic season and hitting his first two centuries. He was, however, pretty much an unknown quantity when he was signed by Essex as an overseas player for the 1968 English cricket season, the first season when limited numbers of overseas players were allowed to be registered without a period of qualification or a special dispensation.

Irvine proved a success in county cricket. In his first season for Essex, he scored 1,439 runs, and though he did not score a century, he made his runs fast and hit a lot of sixes. Wisden Cricketers' Almanack for 1969 recorded that "rarely did he emerge from a match without hitting at least one six, and in fact he was responsible for more sixes than any other player in first-class cricket". He was awarded his county cap in his first season.