Geoffrey Ian Allott (born 24 December 1971) is a former New Zealand

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er who played in 10

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and 31

One Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...

s (ODIs) from 1996 to 2000. He retired from all cricket in 2001, following series of injuries

International career

Allott was a member of the New Zealand squad that won a bronze medal at the 1998 Commonwealth Games, which was the only time cricket was included in Commonwealth games. Allott was a revelation at the

1999 Cricket World Cup The 1999 Cricket World Cup (officially known as ICC Cricket World Cup '99) was the seventh edition of the Cricket World Cup, organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was hosted primarily by England, with Scotland, Ireland, Wales ...

in England May/June 1999. With 20 wickets in nine matches he topped the wicket taking ranks for the tournament. Gaining prodigious movement in the air and off the pitch, the left-armer deceived some of the world's best batsmen, and made a huge contribution towards New Zealand's semi-final finish. He was first selected by

Glenn Turner Glenn Maitland Turner (born 26 May 1947) played cricket for New Zealand and was one of the country's best and most prolific batsmen. He is the current head of the New Zealand Cricket selection panel. Early life Glenn Turner was born in Dune ...

for the Test series against Zimbabwe in 1995/6, when New Zealand had an injury crisis and were looking to give Test experience to new players of quality. Although he was moderately successful he was not selected for the subsequent ODI series or for the

1996 Cricket World Cup The 1996 Cricket World Cup, also called the Wills World Cup 1996 after the Wills Navy Cut brand produced by tournament sponsor ITC, was the sixth Cricket World Cup organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was the second World Cu ...

. A quick left armer in the

Richard Collinge Richard Owen Collinge (born 2 April 1946) is a former New Zealand cricketer, who played 35 Tests and 15 ODIs. He was New Zealand Cricket Almanack Player of the Year in 1971. Domestic career He played domestic cricket for three different sides. ...

"dig it in" mould he was considered too inaccurate for limited overs. Over the winter he built up his strength and bowled well for his province at the start of 1996/7. A great game for New Zealand A versus England in 1997 earned him a recall to the Test team, and he bowled far better in two Tests than his figures might indicate.

Trivia

He held the record for the longest time taken to score a

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as well as taking a long time to get off the mark, but was dismissed for duck – 77 balls and 101 minutes for

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

versus

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in 1999. Though his record for longest time for a duck still stands, his record for longest time for no runs was held until March 2013, when England cricketer

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batted for 103 minutes against New Zealand before scoring a run.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Allott, Geoff 1971 births Living people Canterbury cricketers New Zealand One Day International cricketers New Zealand Test cricketers New Zealand cricketers Cricketers at the 1998 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for New Zealand Commonwealth Games medallists in cricket Medallists at the 1998 Commonwealth Games