Former New Zealand skipper John R Reid, the country’s oldest surviving Test player, died in Auckland on Wednesday. He was 92.
Reid, who was the 1959 Wisden Cricketer of the Year, made his debut for New Zealand against England in Manchester in 1949. The right-handed batsman was the first captain ever to score 500 runs and pick up 10 wickets in a series with his tally of 546 runs and 11 dismissals in South Africa in 1962.
He played 58 Test matches and smashed 3,428 runs before retiring in 1965. The Test cricketer also held the record for most international runs by a New Zealand cricketer in a calendar year (871 in 1965), before it was broken by Brendon McCullum in 2014.
Reid captained the Kiwis in 34 Tests including, New Zealand’s first three victories. Of his six Test centuries, the highest was 142 against South Africa at Johannesburg, in the Boxing Day Test of 1961.
John R Reid was diagnosed with cancer in 2013, but fought against it to recover completely after undergoing surgery, and in August 2015, became the oldest surviving Test cricketer from New Zealand after Trevor Barber passed away. Reid was a prolific first-class cricketer, who played 246 first-class games, scoring 16128 runs at 41.35, while taking 466 wickets at 22.60.
