Mark Wayne Alleyne (born 23 May 1968) is an English cricket coach and former

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

er who made ten

One Day International One Day International (ODI) is a format of cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of fifty overs, with the game lasting up to 7 hours. The World Cup, generally held every four yea ...

appearances for

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

between 1998/99 and 2000/01. He is the head coach at

Gloucestershire County Cricket Club Gloucestershire County Cricket Club, founded in 1870, is one of 18 first-class cricket, first-class county cricket, county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the Historic counties of England, hist ...

. Classed as an

all-rounder An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a handful of batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are cons ...

, he mostly batted in the middle of the order and bowled at a medium pace, but he has also kept wicket for both England and his county, Gloucestershire. He is the first Black British and third Black overall to coach an English first-class cricket team after Derief Taylor and John Shepherd.

Domestic career

Alleyne impressed early for Gloucestershire, scoring a century for them at 18 and a double-hundred at 22, being in both cases the youngest to achieve the feat for the county. He replaced Jack Russell as captain in 1997, and in 2000 led Gloucestershire to two one-day cups and the

National League National League often refers to: *National League (baseball), one of the two baseball leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada *National League (division), the fifth division of the English football (soccer) system ...

title, just missing out on promotion in the

County Championship The County Championship, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Rothesay County Championship, is the only domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales. Established in 1890, it is organised by the England and Wales Cri ...

, his achievements winning him a

Wisden Cricketer of the Year The ''Wisden'' Cricketers of the Year are cricketers selected for the honour by the annual publication ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', based "primarily for their influence on the previous English season". The award began in 1889 with the naming ...

spot. In the ensuing few years he became renowned as a leading tactician in the one-day form of county cricket, leading Gloucestershire to 4 one day knockout cups in 6 years. In 2001, however, his performances fell away somewhat, especially with the bat, and Alleyne relinquished the captaincy to Chris Taylor in 2004. Indeed, he played just four county matches that year and did not make his first appearance in 2005 until 10 June.

International career

On the 1998/99 tour of

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he made his England debut at

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

. In February 2020, he was named in England's squad for the Over-50s Cricket World Cup in South Africa. However, the tournament was cancelled during the third round of matches due to the

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Coaching career

After coach

John Bracewell John Garry Bracewell (born 15 April 1958) is a former New Zealand cricketer who was most recently the coach of the Ireland national cricket team, Irish national team. He played 41 Test cricket, Test matches between 1980 and 1990, as well as 53 O ...

left Gloucestershire Cricket Club to join the New Zealand Test Team, Mark took over as Head Coach at Gloucestershire between 2004 and 2007 narrowly missing out on the Twenty20 title in 2007. He stood down as coach by mutual consent in February 2008 with nine months of his contract remaining. Alleyne then took up coaching at the National Performance Centre at Loughborough, where he coached the England Under-15s. In February 2009 he was named as the new MCC head coach, succeeding Clive Radley, who retired after a 48-year association with Lord's. He subsequently became cricket professional at

Marlborough College Marlborough College is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English private boarding school) for pupils aged 13 to 18 in Marlborough, Wiltshire, England. It was founded as Marlborough School in 1843 by the Dean of Manchester, George ...

, a public school in Wiltshire. In 2022 he coached the England Men's

T20I Twenty20 International (T20I) is a form of Twenty20 cricket, in which each team plays a single innings with a maximum of twenty overs. The matches are played between international teams recognized by the International Cricket Council (ICC). ...

team on a tour of the Caribbean and in 2023 he served as white-ball coach for

Glamorgan Glamorgan (), or sometimes Glamorganshire ( or ), was Historic counties of Wales, one of the thirteen counties of Wales that existed from 1536 until their abolishment in 1974. It is located in the South Wales, south of Wales. Originally an ea ...

and Welsh Fire. In February 2024 Gloucestershire announced his return as head coach.

Personal life

Born in England, Alleyne is of Bajan descent. At the age of 4, he moved with his parents to Barbados where he learned to play cricket, and returned to England 11 years later to further his education. His son Max Alleyne is a professional footballer for

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

side

Manchester City Manchester City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English footbal ...

. Alleyne was awarded the MBE for services to cricket in the Queen's

New Year Honours The New Year Honours is a part of the British honours system, with New Year's Day, 1 January, being marked by naming new members of orders of chivalry and recipients of other official honours. A number of other Commonwealth realms also mark this ...

list for 2004. As of 2009, he was Chairman of the Professional Cricket Coaches Association.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alleyne, Mark English cricketers England One Day International cricketers Gloucestershire cricket captains Gloucestershire cricketers Wisden Cricketers of the Year 1968 births Living people English people of Barbadian descent Sportspeople of Barbadian descent Members of the Order of the British Empire First-Class Counties Select XI cricketers Black British sportsmen English cricket coaches People from Tottenham Cricketers from the London Borough of Haringey 20th-century English sportsmen