Sir Richard Hadlee - Recalling the career of New Zealand's greatest ever cricketer

Richard Hadlee is arguably New Zealand’s greatest ever cricketer

Aptly nicknamed “New Zealand’s Rolls Royce”, Sir Richard Hadlee happens to be one of the classiest cricketers ever produced by New Zealand. He cemented his place as one of the greatest fast bowlers of all time, lifting New Zealand to unprecedented feats in the Test arena. He also happened to be the first player to reach 400 Test wickets, in just 79 matches.

As a bowling “all-rounder”, in an 86-Test career, he took 431 wickets (a record at the time) at an enviable average of 22.29, and made 3124 runs at 27.16. He was also a hard-hitting batsman of unquestioned skill and is acknowledged as one of the four great all-rounders of the 1980s, along with Sir Ian Botham, Imran Khan and Kapil Dev.

As a bowler, Hadlee started off being extremely fast but as the years progressed he gained accuracy, movement off the wicket and in the air, and a reputation that probably gained him quite a few wickets on its own. His is often credited to deliver the unplayable outswinger, which became his main weapon in the latter stages of his career.

All this while, he was also an aggressive left-handed middle-order batsman, finishing his career scoring 15 Test fifties and 2 Test centuries. He was prolific as a batsman in first-class cricket too, averaging more than 50 for Nottinghamshire in 1984, 1986 and 1987.

Hadlee was prolific with the bat in first-class cricket

Richard Hadlee’s greatest spells

Remembered for some of the most majestic spells of fast bowling seen on New Zealand soil, his first great demolition job came in Wellington in February 1978, five years on from his debut. In this match his 10 wickets, including 6 for 26 in the second innings, condemned England to their first ever defeat against the Kiwis.

The English tour of 1983 saw New Zealand's first ever win over England at their home turf. Hadlee topped both batting and bowling averages for New Zealand in the series and took his 200th Test wicket in the final match at Nottingham.

However, it was for the Australians that he preserved his finest efforts, and his 15-wicket haul in Brisbane in 1985-86 remains one of the most talked-of moments in Trans-Tasman rivalry.

It thus wouldn’t be unfair to say that he single-handedly carried the New Zealand team, which at best was mediocre during his career.