Career
Born in Wellington, Burns was a right–hand bat and right–arm medium pace bowler who took five wickets in his two first–class matches for Northern Districts during the 1964/65 season. Burns played his two first–class matches in February 1965, both in Seddon Park in Hamilton, New Zealand, against the touring Pakistan side and Canterbury cricket team In the former, on 4 February, Burns made seven runs in Northern Districts only innings, and took three wickets in his first innings with the ball, those of Ghulam Abbas, Masood-ul-Hasan and Farooq Hameed.
His second match saw him take two Canterbury wickets in their first innings, and two in Northern Districts first innings.
The match was drawn as Northern Districts, following on, ended the final day five down with Burns not required to battalion