Richard Hadlee - the star among the kiwi pace bowlers

Cricket in the family.... Richard John Hadlee born on 3rd July 1951 chose on a family with impeccable cricketing credentials _ his father Walter captained New Zealand on its tour to England in 1949 and 2 of his three elder brothers also wore the silver fern; Dayle playing in 26 Tests. Even Richard's wife Karen played for the national women's team.

Once a tearaway fast bowler and a useful tail-ender for Canterbury, Hadlee cut his run-up and developed into one of the greatest allrounders of all times.

A blistering lower middle-order batsman, he achieved efficiency with the ball.

The impact of Richard Hadlee on New Zealand's Test fortunes has been phenomenal. His dominance over around 20 years since his entry on the Test scene is borne out by one revealing statistic.

Prior to the time when Hadlee made his Test debut on February 2nd 1973 at Wellington against Pakistan, New Zealand had contested 102 Tests, winning just 7, losing as many as 46, and drawing the remaining 49, success percentage a modest 30.88 in the long and black 42-year period from 1929-30 to 1971-72.

He has a long history of being on the winning side of the matches.

Richard Hadlee can rightly take his honoured place with all-time greats like Spofforth and S.F. Barnes to Trueman and Lillee - and of course, Malcolm Marshall.

February 1976 v India at Wellington. New Zealand won by an innings, with Hadlee (in his 9th Test) taking seven for 23 in the second innings for a match haul of 11 for 58 - both still series records for the best innings bowling and match aggregate figures by New Zealand in any Test, home or away, against India.

February 1978 v England at Wellington. Hadlee's match aggregate of 10 for 100 is still the best by a New Zealand bowler in any Test, home or away, against England.

February 1980 v West Indies at Dunedin. Hadlee's match aggregate of 11 for 102 remains the best for New Zealand in any Test, home or away, against West Indies.

February 1984 v England at Christchurch. Another facet of Hadlee's all-round skills. Apart from taking 8 wickets in the match, Hadlee hit a thunderous 99 off only 81 balls with 18 four - an impressive 72.7 percent of his hurricane knock coming in boundary-strokes.

March 1984 v Sri Lanka at Colombo. Hadlee's 5 wickets in each innings for an overall tally of 10 for 102 remains New Zealand's best match aggregate in any Test, home or away, against Sri Lanka.

November 1985 v Australia at Brisbane. Hadlee's zenith of success. His 9 for 52 in the first innings and match aggregate of 15 for 123 are both National records for the best by a New Zealand bowler in a Test against any country in all Test cricket.

December 1985 v Australia at Perth. Hadlee again took 5 for 65 and 6 for 90 for a match figures of 11 for 155. His 33 wickets (averaging an incredibly low 12.15) in this 3-Test rubber represents the best for New Zealand in any Test series played against any country, home or away, whether of 3 Tests or 4 Tests or 5 Tests.

Amazing feats

Hadlee has accounted for a total of 157 individual players - 44 Australians, 29 Indians, 28 Englishmen, 22 Pakistanis, 20 West Indians and 14 Sri Lankans.

The batsmen he has dismissed most often is England's Derek Randall 9 times, followed by Australia's David Boon and Greg Matthews 8 times apiece. Desmond Haynes (West and Greg Matthews 8 times apiece. Desmond Haynes (West Indies) and Geoff Marsh (Australia) have each succumbed to Hadlee 7 times.

Those whom Hadlee has claimed 6 times are Gordon Greenidge, Allan Border, Greg Chappell, Mushtaq Mohammed, Sidath Wettimuny, Bob Taylor and Phil Edmonds.

As a matter of interest, Hadlee has dismissed Sunil Gavaskar, Dilip Vengsarkar, Gundappa Viswanath and Arun Lal 4 times each, Krishnamachari Srikkanth and Mohinder Amarnath thrice apiece, Kapil Dev twice and Mohammad Azharuddin once.Hadlee has taken his 391 wickets at 27 Tests venues, as per the countrywise grouping here under.

177 wickets in New Zealand: 69 at Christchurch, 42 each at Auckland and Wellington, 19 at Dunedin and 5 at Napier.

77 wickets in Australia: 21 at Brisbane, 19 at Melbourne, 18 at Perth, 13 at Sydney and 6 at Adelaide.

54 wickets in England: 22 at Lord's, 20 at Trend Bridge and 12 at The Oval.

31 wickets in India: 15 at Bombay, 5 each at Madras and Bangalore, 3 each at Kanpur and Hyderabad Deccan.

27 wickets in Sri Lanka: 19 at Colombo and 8 at Kandy.

15 wickets in West Indies: 4 each at Port-of-Spain, Georgetown and Kingston and 3 at Bridgetown.10 wickets in Pakistan: 5 at Lahore, 4 at Karachi and one at Hyderabad Sind.

ACdeS