Border, Allan Robert

Allan Robert Border, (born July 27, 1955, Cremorne, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia), Australian cricketer who held the all-time run-scorer record in Test (international) matches from 1993 to 2005, when he was surpassed by Brian Lara.

A left-handed batsman and bowler, Border grew up in Sydney and entered first-class cricket in 1977. He played his first Test match in Melbourne in 1978–79, captained the Queensland team in 1983–84, and succeeded Kim Hughes as captain of the Australia team in the 1984–85 season. Border became the most prolific batsman in Australian Test history—a record broken by Ricky Ponting in 2009—and maintained a Test average of about 51 despite captaining a losing side throughout much of his career. In 1993 he surpassed the Indian batsman Sunil Gavaskar’s record of 10,122 runs to become the highest run scorer in Test cricket history; when he retired from international play in 1994, he had 11,174 runs. Border played in more Test matches (156) than any other player in history until being passed by Steve Waugh. He also led Australia to victory over England in both the 1987 World Cup competition and the 1989 Ashes series.