| Personal information | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Martin Olive | |||
| Born | 18 April 1958 Watford, Hertfordshire, England |
|||
| Batting style | Right-handed | |||
| Role | Batsman | |||
| Domestic team information | ||||
| Years | Team | |||
| 1977–81 | Somerset | |||
| 1982–87 | Devon | |||
| First-class cricket debut | 15 June 1977 Somerset v Glamorgan | |||
| Last First-class cricket | 3 July 1981 Somerset v Surrey | |||
| List A cricket debut | 5 June 1977 Somerset v Glamorgan | |||
| Last List A cricket | 24 June 1987 Devon v Worcestershire | |||
| Career statistics | ||||
| Competition | First-class | List A | ||
| Matches | 17 | 2 | ||
| Runs scored | 467 | 11 | ||
| Batting average | 15.56 | 11.00 | ||
| 100s/50s | –/1 | –/– | ||
| Top score | 50 | 9 | ||
| Balls bowled | – | – | ||
| Wickets | – | – | ||
| Bowling average | – | – | ||
| 5 wickets in innings | – | – | ||
| 10 wickets in match | – | – | ||
| Best bowling | – | – | ||
| Catches/stumpings | 9/– | –/– | ||
| Source: CricketArchive, 24 February 2011 | ||||
Martin Olive (born 18 April 1958) played first-class and List A cricket for Somerset from 1977 to 1981.[1] He also played Minor Counties and List A cricket for Devon. He was born at Watford, Hertfordshire.
Olive was a right-handed middle-order or opening batsman. He was a successful school cricketer at Millfield School and was playing for Somerset's second eleven at the age of 17. In 1977, he made a single List A appearance and then his first-class debut, playing in a handful of games, and then appeared in the England Under-19 team in one-day international matches.[2] The strength of Somerset's squad restricted Olive's first-team opportunities to a single game in each of the 1978 and 1979 seasons; he did not play any further one-day matches for Somerset. But in 1980, he played in nine first-class games, and in the match against Yorkshire at Weston-super-Mare he made exactly 50, the only first-class half-century of his career.[3] Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, in its report on Somerset in the 1981 edition, said that Olive "did enough to suggest a future as a sound opening batsman".[4]
In 1981, however, Olive was unsuccessful in the three first-class matches in which he appeared, and Jeremy Lloyds became the regular opening batsman for the team. Olive left the Somerset staff at the end of the season and took a job in a building society in Devon: the building society was the target of a hold-up on his first day.[5] In 1982, 1986 and 1987, he played Minor Counties cricket for Devon and in 1987 he made a single List A appearance in the NatWest Trophy, opening the batting for Devon in a heavy defeat against Worcestershire.[6]
As of 2011, he is head of key accounts at Sun Life Financial of Canada, based in Bristol.[7]