Gary Cooke's Trailblazers - Alan Lewis Irish International cricketer and rugby referee

Alan Lewis - A former International Irish cricketer and former International rugby union referee. He played 121 times for the Irish cricket team between 1984 and 1997 including eight first-class matches against Scotland and 23 List A matches. He captained Ireland Cricket team 35 times and is one of only six players to have played more than 100 times for Ireland, behind only Peter Gillespie and Kyle McCallan. In 1995, Lewis won the man of the match award in a Benson & Hedges Cup match against Kent, this added to his 1991 Man of the match award in the NatWest Trophy against Middlesex. This made Alan the only Irish player to win man of the match awards in both competitions. He also played a match for the MCC against Scotland in 1995. Alan played eight further times for Ireland that year, including a match against Australia, before his final match against the Earl of Arundel's XI on 20 August. He played twice more for the MCC against Scotland, in 1998 and 2002. Alan also played rugby union but his career was cut short by injury so he took up refereeing. In no time Alan reached the highest level of refereeing and was selected for the 2003 and 2007 Rugby World Cups. Alan gives his views to Gary Cooke on where we have come with refereeing at the highest level and have, we gone too far ! and a lot more !