Kim John Barnett (born 17 July 1960) is a former English

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. Barnett was a

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the ball with a bat to score runs and prevent the loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since September 2021, officially referred to as a batter (historically, the ...

who played internationally for

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

between 1988 and 1989. He was primarily a batsman, but could also deploy effective

leg spin Leg spin is a type of spin bowling in cricket. A leg spinner bowls right-arm with a wrist spin action. The leg spinner's normal delivery causes the ball to spin from right to left (from the bowler's perspective) when the ball bounces on the ...

, and topped the English first-class

bowling average In cricket, a player's bowling average is the number of runs they have conceded per wicket taken. The lower the bowling average is, the better the bowler is performing. It is one of a number of statistics used to compare bowlers, commonly use ...

s in 1994 with 13.30, albeit with only thirteen wickets to his name. Barnett was named one of the five

Wisden Cricketers of the Year The ''Wisden'' Cricketers of the Year are cricketers selected for the honour by the annual publication ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', based primarily on their "influence on the previous English season". The award began in 1889 with the naming ...

in 1989.

Domestic career

He mainly played for

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

, from 1979 to 1998 and

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

from 1999 to 2002. He also played for South African teams Boland and Impalas. Barnett played the bulk of his

county cricket Inter-county cricket matches are known to have been played since the early 18th century, involving teams that are representative of the historic counties of England and Wales. Since the late 19th century, there have been two county championship ...

career for Derbyshire, and was captain between 1983 and 1995. He remained at the club for several more years, until clashes with players and the county's committee resulted in his leaving for

in 1999. He was disappointed not to be offered a renewal of his contract after the 2002 season, and retired from

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

, although he continued to play in regional league competitions. Barnett scored 28,593 first-class runs in 479 matches at an average of 40.38, with 61 centuries and a top score of 239 not out, made against

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...

. He passed 1000 runs in a single season 16 times, including eleven consecutive seasons between 1983 and 1993.

International career

Barnett played only four

Test match Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (association football) ...

es for England, partly as a result of bad fortune and partly of his own choice. He was selected for the 1988/89 tour to

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, which was cancelled, and then accepted a place on the

Mike Gatting Michael William Gatting (born 6 June 1957) is an English former cricketer, who played first-class cricket for Middlesex (1975–1998; captain 1983–1997) and for England from 1977 to 1995, captaining the national side in twenty-three Test ma ...

led

rebel tour The South African rebel tours were a series of seven cricket tours staged between 1982 and 1990. They were known as the rebel tours because the international cricketing bodies Sporting boycott of South Africa, banned South Africa from competitiv ...

of South Africa in 1989/90, and was immediately banned from Test cricket for three years. In one-day cricket, according to former Gloucestershire coach

John Bracewell John Garry Bracewell (born 15 April 1958) is a former New Zealand cricketer who was most recently the coach of the Irish national team. He played 41 Test matches between 1980 and 1990, as well as 53 One Day Internationals. He was the second N ...

, Barnett played a key role in a very successful side:

winning a "double double" in 1999 and 2000 (both the Benson and Hedges Cup and the C&G Trophy, in both seasons), while also pocketing the Sunday League in 2000 ... Key to all this was veteran opener Kim Barnett, who Bracewell described as "like Duckworth-Lewis before it was invented". It was Barnett who would first calculate the par score, then systematically plot the road map to that total.

Coaching career

He was coach of the

Minor Counties The National Counties, known as the Minor Counties before 2020, are the cricketing counties of England and Wales that do not have first-class status. The game is administered by the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), which comes unde ...

side,

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

, and played for them on occasion.

Outside cricket

Barnett used to play for Rocester F.C. and Leek Town before football took a back seat for cricket.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Barnett, Kim 1960 births Living people Directors of Cricket Boland cricketers Derbyshire cricket captains England One Day International cricketers England Test cricketers English cricketers Gloucestershire cricketers Wisden Cricketers of the Year Sportspeople from Leek, Staffordshire Staffordshire cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Test and County Cricket Board XI cricketers D. H. Robins' XI cricketers Young England cricketers Leek Town F.C. players Rocester F.C. players English footballers Association footballers not categorized by position