Born on April 19th 1953 in Hampstead, Middlesex, former Test and ODI player for England, Avril Starling.
Avril was a right hand batter and medium pace bowler, but her batting stats over her eleven Test matches and 20 ODIs will tell you that her bowling was her main weapon. And how! A debut in international cricket came for Avril in 1981/82 at the World Cup in New Zealand. In her first match for England she took 3-7 from 12 overs. Read that again… it was the only World Cup tournament in which she played, but Avril continued that form across her career. In 20 ODIs she took 25 wickets at 18.16 runs per wicket and a miserly economy rate of just 2.19 runs per over.
A Test debut in 1984/85 against New Zealand was the first of her eleven Tests. Her best bowling figures of 5-36 came against the Old Enemy in an Ashes Test at Adelaide in the same season in a match that England had a miraculous victory. Across her career, 37 Test wickets at 24.64 runs per wicket.