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Derek Pringle

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Derek Pringle

Derek Raymond Pringle (born 18 September 1958) is a Kenyan-born English former Test and One Day International cricketer for England, and is now a cricket journalist. 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.

Pringle was born in Nairobi, Kenya. His father Donald Pringle, who had moved there to work as a landscaper, played cricket for Kenya and represented East Africa at the 1975 Cricket World Cup; he died in a car accident a few months later, days after his son's 17th birthday.

Pringle was educated at St. Mary's School (Nairobi), Felsted School and Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. He played for Essex between 1978 and 1993. He was a member of the successful Essex sides of the 1980s and early 1990s, alongside cricketers such as Graham Gooch, Mark Waugh, Nasser Hussain, John Lever and Neil Foster, which in that period won the County Championship six times. As an undergraduate, Pringle played for Cambridge University. In 1982, while captain of the university, he was selected for England Pringle went on to play 30 Tests, the last of which was in 1992, scoring 695 runs and taking 70 wickets. He also played in 44 One-Day Internationals between 1982 and 1993. He appeared in two World Cups and was a member of England's 1992 World Cup Final team. He has published his memoir/autobiography 'Pushing the Boundaries - Cricket in the 80s' in November 2018.

Pringle's career can probably be best summed up in phases.

Phase 1 – Early days in Botham's shadow Picked for the first time in 1982, he played several Test matches that summer with Ian Botham in the same side but averaged just 11 with the bat and 40 with the ball. The selectors felt that faster bowling was more likely to trouble the 1982 tourists (India and Pakistan) than spin. Pringle toured Australia in 1982–83 but failed to hold his place in 1983.

Pringle was recalled to the England team for the start of 1984, but was powerless to prevent a series of Test defeats by the all-conquering touring West Indies cricket team. He did however take his first Test five-wicket haul in the first Test match at Birmingham, and could claim to be the only English player to be man of the match in a victory over the West Indies that summer, in the second one-day international at Nottingham.

Phase 2 – England's all-rounder By the summer of 1986, Botham had been banned for three months for smoking cannabis. Pringle was therefore elevated to fulfil Botham's role. 1986 was probably one of the worst years for English Test cricket. Pringle played in the first three-match series of the summer, bowling adequately but having his batting exposed by the Indian spin attack, particularly Maninder Singh. He did however make his only Test half-century (an innings of 63) in the first match of this series at Lord's, adding 147 in a partnership with Graham Gooch.

With Botham returning for the last Test of the year at the Oval, Pringle was dropped and did not make the 1986–87 Australian tour. He did not return to the side until the following winter's tour to India and Pakistan for the 1987 World Cup, as Botham had decided not to tour. Pringle's style of bowling proved to be unsuccessful on dead Asian pitches; he went for 83 runs against West Indies in Gujranwala. Although he played the next two games, against Pakistan and Sri Lanka, he was then dropped for the rest of the tournament.

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