Sir Andrew John Strauss, KN, born 2 March 1977, is an English cricket administrator and former player who previously served as the Director of Cricket for the England and Wales Cricket Board, ECB. Strauss played county cricket for Middlesex and captained England in all formats of the game. He is a good left-handed opening batsman, with a preference for backfoot shots, by which he mainly cuts and pulls the ball. He was also known for his fielding strength at slips or in the covers.
Why is Andrew Strauss a sir?
Strauss has been knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 2019 for his services to sports and charity with the Ruth Strauss Foundation, having followed in his footsteps of opening partner Alastair Cook to the recognition of Buckingham Palace.
What happened to Andrew Strauss’ wife?
In early 2018, Ruth Strauss, wife of Sir Andrew Strauss, the former England cricket captain, was diagnosed with an incurable lung cancer that affects non-smokers. Ruth died on December 29th, 2018; she was 46 years old and mother to two children, then aged 10 and 13.
Is Andrew Strauss dating?
Ex-England cricket captain Andrew Strauss, 46, looks bowled. The former England cricket captain, 46, was seen embracing Antonia Linnaeus Peat as they left an exclusive. It is understood that Strauss and the PR executive, who is 18 years younger than him, have been in a relationship for several months.
Who is Andrew, a retired cricketer?
Andrew Strauss. Sir Andrew John Strauss OBE (born 2 March 1977) is a cricket administrator and former player who is the former ECB Director of Cricket. He played county cricket for Middlesex and captained the England side in all forms of the game.
Debut
Strauss made his first-class debut in 1998 and his One Day International (ODI) debut in Sri Lanka in 2003. He gained popularity when he made his Test match debut, replacing the injured Michael Vaughan at Lord’s against New Zealand in 2004. With scores of 112 and 83 (run out) in an England victory and the Man of the Match award, he became only the fourth batsman to score a century at Lord’s on his debut and was close to becoming the first Englishman to score centuries in both innings of his debut.
Strauss again nearly scored two centuries (126 and 94 not out) and was named man of the match in his first overseas Test match, in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, in December 2004. He had a slump in form during 2007, and as a result, he was dropped from the Test squad for England’s tour of Sri Lanka and declared that he was retiring from cricket.
Education and early life
Strauss moved to the UK when he was six years old. He spent most of his early life at Caldicott School, a preparatory school for boys in Buckinghamshire. Later on, he went to Radley College, which is a public board school for boys in Oxfordshire.
He pursued postgraduate studies in economics at Durham University. He did his dissertation on supermodular games. Besides playing for the university team, he also played for the Hatfield College side. One of his teammates there was the cricket statistician Benedict Bermange. Strauss also represented the university rugby club as a flyhalf. He began playing in the third XV but soon made it to the second XV. His coach at the university was Graeme Fowler, who finally managed to convince Strauss to play cricket only.
Career
He spent several early years of his cricketing career in the cities of Sydney and Adelaide in Australia, during which time he briefly played first-grade cricket alongside Australian bowler Brett Lee. During his time in Australia, he met his future wife, actress Ruth McDonald, whom he married in October 2003, and lived in Marlow with their sons, Sam (born 4 December 2005) and Luca (14 July 2008). On 29 December 2018, Ruth died after a battle with a rare form of lung cancer. After Ruth’s death, Andrew contacted former Ashes opponent Glenn McGrath, who himself had been widowed by cancer when Glenn’s wife Jane, a native of Paignton, Devon, had died of breast cancer.
After Jane’s demise, Glenn formed the McGrath Foundation for combating breast cancer and, as his first official supporter, secured a partnership between this foundation and the Sydney Test by hosting Jane McGrath Day as day 3; the stumps, players, and clothes that the crowd used were pink. Since he had passed through one Pink Test in 2011, Strauss and his Ruth Strauss Foundation ensured that Day 2 of the Lord’s Test became another identical sister event in preparation for the 2019 Ashes.
New Zealand and South Africa tour England
Strauss’s innings of 177 saw him automatically retain a place in the side for the next series against the same opponents. While still overlooked for the One Day International team, he was restored to his position of Test opener alongside Alastair Cook and Michael Vaughan, going back down to number 3. In the first rain-affected match at Lords, he continued his form with a slow but steady 63 in the only England innings of the match.
In the second Test, Strauss made another 60 before getting out, giving England a decent start following a big first innings total. He then went on to make 106, chasing 294, in the second innings on a now difficult batting wicket, which set England up to win by 6 wickets to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series. This was Strauss’s second Test century at Old Trafford; the first had come against Australia in 2005, also when Strauss scored 106. In the third and final Test at Trent Bridge, he made 37 in England’s only innings as England went on to win the series 2–0. He was man of the series for his 266 runs at an average of 66.50.
Captaincy
Strauss became the captain on 7 January 2009, after a publicized rift between ex-captain Kevin Pietersen and Peter Moores. Pietersen then resigned as captain after just 3 Test matches, and Moores was sacked. This was in succession to a recovery in form in the 2008 Test Series in India; England lost and drew their two games there.
In his first match as regular captain, against the West Indies at Sabina Park, Strauss and his team failed, with Strauss scoring 7 and 9 as England were bowled out for 51 in the second inning to lose by an innings. After the fiasco of the abandoned Test match.