Christopher Lance Cairns ONZM (born 13 June 1970) is a former all-rounder who played for the New Zealand international cricket team, the Black Caps, and is son of former New Zealand cricketer Lance Cairns. He starred in both the One-day and Test New Zealand teams, as well as the Canterbury New Zealand domestic championship team. Cairns also captained the Black Caps on seven occasions, usually when regular captain Stephen Fleming was unavailable.

He was described by Shane Warne, the Australian leg spinner, as the best all-rounder in the world.^{[citation needed]} Cairns finished his Test career with a batting average of 33.53 and a bowling average of 29.40. In 2000, he was named as one of five Wisden Cricketers of the Year.

Cairns was a destructive batsman who could hit sixes straight down the ground and in his earlier days was an intelligent fast-medium bowler. Since then, persistent injuries have forced him to drop his pace and rely more on his hard-to-read slower ball.

With the bat, Cairns has been the author of some of New Zealand cricket's most memorable innings, including his unbeaten 102 to win the final of the 2000 ICC KnockOut Trophy for New Zealand against India in Kenya, and his 158 from just 172 balls in a Test against South Africa in 2004. Cairns knocked Shane Warne out of Australia's bowling attack during a 2000 test in Wellington when he launched several sixes out of the Basin Reserve and onto the adjacent street. Cairns formerly held the world record for most sixes in Tests (87, since surpassed by Adam Gilchrist), and shared the New Zealand record for fastest century in ODIs (75 balls, since surpassed by Craig McMillan).

Cairns ( /ˈkɛərnz/, locally [ˈkeːnz]) is a regional city in Far North Queensland, Australia, founded 1876. The city was named after William Wellington Cairns, then-current Governor of Queensland. It was formed to serve miners heading for the Hodgkinson River goldfield, but experienced a decline when an easier route was discovered from Port Douglas. It later developed into a railhead and major port for exporting sugar cane, gold and other metals, minerals and agricultural products from surrounding coastal areas and the Atherton Tableland region. As of 2010, the population is approximately 150,920.

Cairns is located about 1,700 km (1,056 mi) from Brisbane, and about 2,420 km (1,504 mi) from Sydney by road. It is a popular travel destination for foreign tourists because of its tropical climate. It serves as a starting point for people wanting to visit the Great Barrier Reef and Far North Queensland.

Cairns is located on the east coast of Cape York Peninsula on a coastal strip between the Coral Sea and the Great Dividing Range. The northern part of the city is located on Trinity Bay and the city centre is located on Trinity Inlet. Some of the city's suburbs are located on flood plains. The Mulgrave River and Barron River flow within the greater Cairns area but not through the CBD. The city centre's foreshore is located on a mud flat.

Christopher Mark Wells Read (born 10 August 1978) is an English cricketer, a wicket-keeper who is the captain of Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club. He has been the first-choice England wicket-keeper on numerous occasions during his career, but has never been able to hold onto the role long term.

Read played for Devon in a NatWest Trophy match at the age of 16, and in 1997 made a single AXA Life League appearance for Gloucestershire, claiming an NBC Denis Compton Award that year. After an England A tour to Kenya and Sri Lanka in the winter - making his first-class debut in Nairobi - Read was picked up by Nottinghamshire for the 1998 season. By June he had established himself in the side and he claimed 42 dismissals that summer as well as making 401 runs.

He toured Zimbabwe and South Africa with the A team the following winter, and in 1999 his maiden first-class century, a well-timed 160 against Warwickshire, brought him selection for the first Test against New Zealand at Edgbaston. Still not 21, Read made a good impression: although he failed with the bat, he claimed eight dismissals, six in the second innings alone. He was retained for Lord's, but suffered a very public embarrassment when he was bowled for zero, ducking what he thought was a beamer from Chris Cairns but was in fact a well-disguised slower ball. 37 in the second innings was followed by another duck at Old Trafford, and he was dropped, though he did play in the 1999/2000 One Day International series in South Africa.

Bernard Lance Cairns (born 10 October 1949 in Picton, New Zealand) is a former all-rounder who played for the New Zealand cricket team, and is the father of New Zealand cricketer Chris Cairns.

He was a member of both the one-day and Test New Zealand teams between 1974 and 1985. He also appeared for Central Districts, Northern Districts and Otago in New Zealand domestic cricket. He was also the professional for Bishop Auckland in the North Yorkshire and South Durham League in the North East of England.

New Zealand were favourites coming into the finals of the World Series Cup, a tournament heavily hyped as a chance for New Zealand to gain 'revenge' after the 'underarm' incident in 1980/81. The 1982/83 series saw New Zealand achieve an impressive run of victories in the ten match qualifying round with Australia and England. This included three consecutive wins over Australia and a famous match in Adelaide, where two world records were broken on the same day. New Zealand scored a world record 297-6, in beating England's 296-5.

Brian Charles Lara, TC, OCC, AM (born 2 May 1969, in Santa Cruz, Trinidad and Tobago) is a former West Indian international cricket player. Lara is generally regarded as one of the greatest batsmen of all time. He topped the Test batting rankings on several occasions and holds several cricketing records, including the record for the highest individual score in first-class cricket, with 501 not out for Warwickshire against Durham at Edgbaston in 1994, which is the only quintuple hundred in first-class cricket history. The BBC radio commentary on the final day of the innings (6 June 1994), by Dave Roberts, was being broadcast around the world live via the BBC World Service network, and in the UK on BBC Radios 1, 2 & 4 as well as the majority of BBC Local radio stations. That evening, as Lara neared the all-time batting record, a huge surge of fans crowded to enter the grounds.

Lara also holds the record for the highest individual score in a test innings after scoring 400 not out against England at Antigua in 2004. He is the only batsman to have ever scored a hundred, a double century, a triple century, a quadruple century and a quintuple century in first class games over the course of a senior career. Lara also holds the test record of scoring most number of runs in a single over in a Test match, when he scored 28 runs off an over by Robin Peterson of South Africa in 2003.