Peter Raymond Sleep (born 4 May 1957) is a former Australian cricketer who played 14 Test matches for Australia between 1979 and 1990.
[1] 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.
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".
The spinners chosen to play for Australia that summer included Tony Mann, Jim Higgs and Bruce Yardley.
Sleep was not selected for any tests against England, which Australia lost 5-1; the preferred choices as spinners were Bruce Yardley and Jim Higgs.
[9][10] The Australian selectors responded to this loss by making mass changes to the side for the next test match – something they had done throughout the summer: Graeme Wood, Wayne Clark, Jim Higgs and Peter Sleep were dropped for Rick Darling, Trevor Laughlin, Bruce Yardley and Geoff Dymock.
"[16] He later took 5–71 and made a fifty against Central Zone, which put him in the frame for selection in the Australian team for the third test.
[23][24] On his return to Australia, Sleep was unable to force himself back into the test side at home or in the tour of Pakistan, the selectors preferring to select Ray Bright, Graeme Beard and Jim Higgs.
In 1981-82 Sleep scored 438 first class runs at 29.20 and took 26 wickets at 33.76, being an important part of South Australia's Sheffield Shield winning team.
"[26] An illness to Bruce Yardley saw Sleep picked to play in the second test, where he took 1–158 and scored 30 runs over two innings.
[30] In September 1983 Sleep said he might have to retire or move interstate if he could not secure a guaranteed income from playing cricket.
Australia's selectors went with Tom Hogan, Greg Matthews and Murray Bennett as spinning options.
[32] He did not play first class cricket in 1984-85, in order that he could concentrate on his job of coaching the District Club team Sailsbury.
David Hookes persuaded Sleep to return to South Australia the following summer to cover the retirement of John Inverarity.
Greg Matthews and Ray Bright were preferred as Australia's spinners for the home summer and tours of New Zealand and India.
[34] Greg Matthews suffered a drop in form after returning home from India and Sleep was recalled for the second test side.
He missed out on selection in Australia's World Cup Squad in favour of Peter Taylor and Tim May.
Sleep took five wickets in a tour match against the BCCP XI[46] but was overlooked in favour of Tim May for the first test.
[48] Sleep was not selected in the Australian side over the 1988-89 summer as the selectors went for Trevor Hohns and Tim May.
Sleep's next test was in 1989–90 against Sri Lanka where he made an important contribution to an Australian victory, top scoring in Australia's first innings with 47 and taking five wickets.
Sleep was also a regular league professional in England and towards the end of his career was captain of Lancashire 2nd XI.