Ian Butler

Ian Butler Biography

Ian Gareth Butler is a former New Zealand cricketer who played all three formats of the game. He was born on 24th November 1981 in Middlemore in Auckland.

Standing 1.88 m tall, he is a right arm fast bowler, who came into the international fame as a replacement for injured Shane Bond in 2002.

Background

Ian Butler has a dual citizenship of New Zealand and UK citizenship and so he spent his professional career at this two domestic circuit.

At the age of 17, he played the professional match representing Penrith in Lake District. A year later, he played for Purley in London.

Debut

He made his debut in England’s tour of New Zealand at Christchurch on February 13th, 2002 where he picked up his first international wicket in the very first over of Marcus Trescothick and finished with the figures of 1/37.

His Test debut came against the same opponents at the same ground a month later as he picked up a combined five wickets in both innings in a losing cause.

Rise to glory

He played 53 matches for the Black Caps and picked up 75 wickets at an average of 32.04. In the second Test of Pakistan’s tour of New Zealand at Wellington in December 2003, he rattled the opposition's lineup as he claimed 6/46. That was the only time he crossed the 5 wicket haul in the longer format of the game.

However, he continued to impress in the T20I matches as he was picked the Man of the Match in two occasions - one against Scotland in the 2009 ICC World Twenty20 as he finished with 3/19 and the other one in the 2010 ICC World Twenty20 when he bowled the final over and won the match for his team against Pakistan by 1 run.

Retirement

In 2014, Butler announced his retirement from cricket at a very young age of 32. He felt that his body was not fit enough for cricket. He played the last test match in 2004 against Bangladesh.