Peter Sleep

Personal information

Full name

Peter Raymond Sleep

Born

4 May 1957 (age 59)
Penola, South Australia

Batting style

Right-hand bat

Bowling style

Right-arm Legbreak googly

Role

all rounder

International information

National side

Australia

Test debut (cap 303)

10 March 1979 v Pakistan

Last Test

12 June 1990 v Pakistan

Domestic team information

Years

Team

1976/77 – 1992/1993

South Australia

Career statistics

Competition	Test	FC	List A
Matches	14	175	33
Runs scored	483	8201	956
Batting average	24.15	34.89	38.24
100s/50s	-/3	15/40	1/4
Top score	90	182	109
Balls bowled	2982	28063	168
Wickets	31	363	4
Bowling average	45.06	39.39	44.25
5 wickets in innings	1	9	-
10 wickets in match	0	-	n/a
Best bowling	5/72	8/133	2/58
Catches/stumpings	4/-	104/1	12/-

Source: CricketArchive, 5 October 2013

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.

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".

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.

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

By this stage Sleep had received an offer to play World Series Cricket which he turned down. 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.

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