Peter Sleep

Peter Raymond Sleep (born 4 May 1957 in Penola, South Australia) is a former Australian cricketer who played 14 Tests for Australia between 1979 and 1990.

Nicknamed "Sounda", Sleep made his national debut during the World Series Cricket period, and although his performances were not high, Sleep publicly reported that he had turned down a $15,000/year offer to play for World Series Cricket.^[1]

He was a leg spinner who was in and out of the team, rarely playing two games in succession, though after taking ten wickets in the 1986–87 Ashes he was retained for the next four Tests after the series before falling out of favour again.

The 1986–87 series which included his best bowling figures in a Test innings, five for 72 in the second innings as England failed to chase 320 for the win.

However, Sleep was part of an Australian generation of spinners with bowling averages above 40 (for comparison, the first choice leg spinners in 2006, Shane Warne and Stuart MacGill, both averaged below 30 with the ball), also including Tom Hogan, Murray Bennett and Tony Mann, and the cricket website Cricinfo summed up his career as a "relatively anodyne slow bowler". Sleep himself describes his test career as "mediocre".^[2]

Career

Peter Sleep made his first class debut in 1976-77 while still a teenager. In only his second game he took part in a 159 run partnership with David Hookes against Queensland.^[3]

In 1978-79 a spell of 6-94 and innings of 91 against NSW saw him in the frame for test selection.^[4] He followed this up with 5-24 in 13 overs against Queensland.^[5]

By this stage Sleep had received an offer to play World Series Cricket which he turned down.^[6] That summer he had scored almost 600 runs at an average of more than 35 and taken 42 wickets at 23 runs each in the Shield. He was duly selected in the Australian side the first test against Pakistan.

Test Debut

Australia had just lost 5-1 to England. The selectors decided to drop Peter Toohey, Bruce Yardley and Phil Carlson and replace them with Dav Whatmore, Trevor Laughlin and Sleep.^[6] (Later on Laughlin had to withdraw and was replaced with Wayne Clark.)

For the test match, strong bowling from Rodney Hogg and Alan Hurst put Australia in a strong position. However their batsmen collapsed form 3-305 to all out for 310, taking Pakistan to victory. Sleep took 1-16 and 1-62 and scored 10 and 0.^[7][8] The Australian selectors responded to the match by mass changes - something they did throughout the summer: Graeme Wood, Wayne Clark, Jim Higgs and Peter Sleep were dropped for Rick Darling, Trevor Laughlin, Bruce Yardley and Geoff Dymock.^[9]

Sleep was voted the Sheffield Shield player of the year.^[10]

1979 Tour of India

Sleep was picked on the 1979 tour to India. He was one of three spinners in the squad, the others being Jim Higgs and Bruce Yardley.^[11] This meant he had to break a contract with the Lancashire League, and Sleep was fined.^[12]

Sleep began the Indian tour slowly but took five wickets against South Zone.^[13] According to the Canberra Times "three of them [the wickets] were from loose deliveries which a batsman of Gavaskar's class would put away. He does have the happy knack of taking wickets with bad balls, but there are doubts about his ability to bowl tightly enough against batsmen who were brought up playing spin bowling."^[14]

He later took 5-71 and made a fifty against Central Zone, which put him in the frame for the Australian team for the third test.^[15][16] He did not achieve this but was selected in the team for the 4th test, where he took no wickets but scored 64 in Australia's second innings, helping Australia draw. Sleep took part in two crucial partnerships: 76 with Dav Whatmore and 51 with Geoff Dymock.^[17][18] "He will never hit a better 64 in his life" said contemporary reports.^[19]

Bruce Yardley's return from illness saw Sleep relegated to 12th man for the fifth test.^[20] He was next used in the sixth test, taking no wickets and making four runs, though he did suffer stomach cramps throughout the game.^[21][22]

Test Wilderness

On his return to Australia, Sleep was unable to force himself back into the test side, the selectors preferring Ray Bright, Jim Higgs and Bruce Yardley as spinner. However Sleep was an important part of South Australia's Sheffield Shield winning team in 1981-82.

1982 Tour to Pakistan

Sleep's consistent performances at first class level saw him selected on Australia's 1982 tour of Pakistan.^[23] An illness to Bruce Yardley saw him picked to play in the second test, where he took 1-158 and scored 30 runs over two innings.^[24][25] He was replaced in the third test by Terry Alderman.^[26]

1986-87 Test Recall

Sleep next played for Australia in the 1986-87 Ashes. He was recalled for the second test side, playing 12th man.^[27]

He made the third test team, taking 4-132 in England's first innings.^[28] In the 4th test he took 1-61 and made 16 runs.^[29] However he was kept on for the fifth test, where Sleep's 5-72 in the second innings helped bowl Australia to victory.^[30]

1987-88 Summer

During the 1987-88 summer Sleep played the first test against New Zealand. He took no wickets but his first innings knock of 39 was Australia's second highest score and help with a rare Australian victory.^[31][32]

In the second test he took 1-109 and 3-61 plus a score of 62 with the bat.^[33] For the third test Sleep top scored in Australia's first innings with 90 but only took 0-31 and 3-107 with the ball; his second innings of 20 helped Australia escape with a draw.^[34] For the Bicentennial test he took 2-114 and made 41 in Australia's first innings, the second highest score.^[35]

1988: Tour of Pakistan

Sleep did not play for Australia again until the 1988 tour of Pakistan. He took five wickets in a tour match against the BCCP XI^[36] but was overlooked in favour of Tim May for the first test.^[37]

He was picked in the second test and took two wickets in the first innings.^[38]

1989-90 Summer vs Sri Lanka and Pakistan

His next test was in 1989-90 against Sri Lanka where Sleep made an important contribution to an Australian victory, top scoring in Australia's first innings with 47 and taking five wickets.^[38] For Sleep's last test, against Pakistan, he took two wickets and made 20 runs in all.^[39]

Post-Test career

Sleep was also a regular league professional in England and towards the end of his career was captain of Lancashire 2nd XI.

In 1991 he broke the Lancashire league batting record, held for 40 years by Everton Weekes with 1,621 runs. In 1995 he helped Rishton win the league for the first time since the 1950s. He captained and coached the Lancashire 2nd XI to a championship where he worked with a young Andrew Flintoff.^[2]

In more recent years, Sleep was captain-coach of Yahl Cricket Club in the Mount Gambier District Cricket Association, and has recently transferred to Tea Tree Gully Cricket Club in the South Australian Grade Cricket League.

He was the proprietor of a hotel named "The Wickets" in Rishton, Lancashire until 2009.

Sleep has coached for a number of years. In 2014 the website for the Darren Lehmann Cricket Academy said he had been coaching batting and bowling there for four years.^[40]

References

External links

• Player profile: Peter Sleep from ESPNcricinfo
• Peter Sleep at Cricket Archive

South Australia squad – 1981-82 Sheffield Shield Competition
1 Jeff Crowe 2 Rick Darling 3 John Davey 4 Malcolm Dolman 5 Robert Dugan 6 Kim Harris 7 David Hookes (c) 8 John Inverarity 9 Kevin Lewis 10 Ian McLean 11 Ross McLellan 12 Sam Parkinson 13 Wayne Phillips 14 Wayne Prior 15 Dean Sayers 16 Andrew Sincock 17 Peter Sleep 18 Brian Vincent 19 Kevin Wright