John Reid, cricketer who led New Zealand to their first international victories – obituary

John Reid, who has died aged 92, was one of the outstanding figures in the history of New Zealand cricket, both as a batsman and a bowler, while as captain in 34 successive Test matches between 1956 and 1965 he led his country to its first victories both at home and abroad.

This achievement was the more remarkable because the New Zealand team passed through a weak phase after the retirement of such players as Walter Hadlee, Mervyn Wallace and Martin Donnelly in the early 1950s. Often Reid stood alone as the outstanding performer.

His zestful talent for every aspect of the game gave promise of towering sixes, scattered stumps and tumbling catches. Always eager to attack, he was inclined neither to overrate nor to over-indulge the opposition.

Going out to bat he would walk with a somewhat bow-legged gait and brush his hair nervously with his glove before receiving his first ball. Once set, though, Reid combined a wonderful eye with immense strength, driving, hooking and cutting with explosive power.

As a bowler he could be decidedly quick when young, though later he turned to off-cutters which enforced strict economy. His fielding was unmatched even in the New Zealand side of 1949, when E W Swanton compared his work in the covers to that of the young Bradman.

Yet when Francis Mooney, the regular wicketkeeper, was unable to play in the last Test in England in 1949, Reid donned the gloves and acquitted himself with distinction behind the stumps.

The string of defeats which New Zealand suffered in the 1950s and 1960s never caused Reid to lose heart. “Every game must be played to win,” he proclaimed, “otherwise it is not worth playing. But in playing to win one must not be afraid of being beaten.” In 1956 this faith was at last rewarded.

That year the West Indies were touring New Zealand. With players of the calibre of Everton Weekes, Garry Sobers, Sonny Ramadhin and Alf Valentine, it seemed that they were far too strong for their hosts.

After New Zealand had lost the first Test by an innings, Reid was appointed captain in the place of Harry Cave. Initially this seemed to make no difference, as the second and third Tests also resulted in crushing wins for the West Indies.

But in the fourth Test, at Auckland, Reid was able to turn the tables and inspire New Zealand – not least through his own first-innings score of 84 – to their first Test victory, by 190 runs. It was a triumph for which New Zealand had waited 26 years and 45 Test matches.

Reid’s greatest achievement was in South Africa in 1961-62, when New Zealand won Tests in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth to square the series against a South African side which included Jackie McGlew, Roy McLean, John Waite, Peter Pollock, Colin Bland and Neil Adcock.

Reid made a huge contribution to the series, scoring 546 runs at an average of 60.66, and taking four for 44 in South Africa’s second innings to secure victory by 40 runs in the fifth Test at Port Elizabeth.

It was on that tour that Reid, 94 not out overnight against Natal, completed his century the next morning by hitting a six off the first ball delivered by Adcock, one of the fastest bowlers in the world. This flourish perfectly summed up the New Zealand captain’s approach to the game. Colin Cowdrey called him “a cricketing Hercules”.

John Richard Reid was born in Auckland on June 3 1928, though he grew up in the Hutt Valley, across the harbour from Wellington, where his maternal grandfather quickened his natural enthusiasm for sport.

At Hutt Valley High School Reid won the 100 yards in 10.4 seconds, threw the cricket ball 120 yards, represented the swimming team, carried off the tennis championship, became an RSM in the Corps and was appointed head prefect. His main interests, though, were rugby and cricket, very much in that order.

Already at 15 he was being spoken of as a future All Black; in 1943 and 1944, however, two attacks of rheumatic fever forced him to give up the game. For a long time after that he could not bring himself to watch a rugby match. On the positive side, he met his future wife, a nurse, while in hospital.

Reid dedicated himself to cricket, and in 1947 scored 79 on his debut for Wellington. In January 1949 he secured his selection for the forthcoming tour of England with a century in the trial match.

In England he gave further notice of his potential with 188 not out against Cambridge University. In July, innings of 107 not out (Reid “hit with extreme power”, recorded Wisden) and 72 against Northamptonshire won him a place in the New Zealand side for the third Test.

Brian Close made his Test debut in the same match as Reid, becoming the youngest cricketer to play for England. But whereas Close would have a chequered international career, Reid featured in all 58 Test matches New Zealand played between July 1949 and July 1965.

In his first Test, at Old Trafford, Reid went into bat with New Zealand critically placed at four for 82, and saved the situation with a half-century and a stand of 116 with Martin Donnelly. When England batted, his fielding earned repeated applause.

Between the third and fourth Tests Reid made 151 not out against Warwickshire and 155 against Nottinghamshire. In the Oval Test his 93 in two hours 10 minutes was the backbone of New Zealand’s second innings.

At the end of the tour he was so exhausted that he went to sleep in the Folies Bergère in Paris. Yet the experience gained under Walter Hadlee’s captaincy stayed with him all his life. “I learned how to play cricket according to the rules, but also within the spirit of the game,” he recalled. “I realised it was a game to be played hard, but to be enjoyed.”

It seemed that Reid was already established at the top. But after a half-century against England at Christchurch in 1951, he entered a dreadful phase with the bat, scoring only 58 runs in his next 12 Test innings.

From 1952 to 1954 Reid played for Heywood in the Central Lancashire League, doing so well with both bat and ball that his wages increased from £750 in his first year to £1,200 in his last. The rise was amply justified: in 1954 he made 1,373 runs and took 100 wickets.

The off-cutters he developed at Heywood helped to keep him in the Test side during his lean run with the bat. This stretched into New Zealand’s tour of South Africa in 1953-54 until, in the third Test at Cape Town, he regained his touch with a splendid innings of 135, his first Test century.

Altogether Reid enjoyed a splendid tour, scoring 1,012 runs in first-class matches, and taking 51 wickets, an all-round feat never previously matched in a South African season.

New Zealand’s visit to India in 1955-56 also proved fruitful for Reid, as he averaged over 70 in the Tests, with centuries in successive innings at Delhi and Calcutta. So his claim to the captaincy was securely established.

Reid was severely disappointed, however, by the tours which he led to England in 1958 and 1965. Though the New Zealanders started well in 1958, with six wins from their first nine games, they suffered from an especially wet summer, and in the Tests had no answer to the spin of Jim Laker and Tony Lock. Reid himself could muster only 147 runs in the five Tests, though he scored prolifically against the counties.

He did much better against England when Ted Dexter’s side visited New Zealand early in 1963. Nevertheless England won all three Tests, despite Reid’s innings of 74 and 100 in the last match.

Reid’s career ended in an extraordinary concentration of cricket: in 1965 he played 13 Tests in seven months. In January New Zealand had the better of a three-match home series against Pakistan, without being able to force a win.

Then, in the month of March, they were involved in five Tests in India and Pakistan, drawing three against India before losing the fourth, and then losing heavily against Pakistan at Rawalpindi. Two further matches against Pakistan in April were respectively drawn and lost.

The New Zealanders then moved on to England, where they lost three Tests by wide margins.

Reid was especially disappointed with this tour, during which his side won only three matches. He was suffering from a damaged knee cartilage, and he retired at the end of the season.

First, however, he had the honour of leading the Rest of the World (a side that included Gary Sobers, Hanif Mohammed, the Nawab of Pataudi, Lance Gibbs, Wes Hall, Rohan Kanhai and Eddie Barlow) in two matches against an England XI, at Lord’s and at Scarborough. Both games were affected by rain, but the Rest of the World achieved a nine-wicket victory in a one-innings match at Lord’s.

From the 1960s Reid ran a squash centre in Wellington; later he was concerned with a golf course in the Hutt Valley.

In the 1980s and early 1990s he spent much of his time in South Africa, where he worked for Toyota and coached the Northern Transvaal side. He returned to New Zealand in 1992. From 1993 he served as a Test match referee, both at home and abroad.

Always forthright, Reid did not hesitate to fine Waqar Younis and Azhar Mahmood for ball-tampering, and to send the umpires’ report on Shoaib Akhtar’s bowling action to the ICC. Smarting from these decisions, Pakistan objected to his appointment for the Asian championships in August 2001.

Reid had no time for the swearing, spitting, and gamesmanship of the modern game. He was particularly disgusted with the sledging by young English cricketers when he managed a New Zealand Under-19 tour to England in 1996. But his letter of complaint to Micky Stewart, director of coaching and excellence at Lord’s, elicited no response.

In his first-class career John Reid played in 246 matches and made 16,128 runs at an average of 41.35. As a bowler he captured 466 wickets at 33.35 apiece. In Tests he scored 3,428 runs (including six centuries) at an average of 33.28. His 85 wickets cost 33.35 each.

He made 39 hundreds, and four times went on to a double-century. His 296 for Wellington against Northern Districts in 1962-63 occupied only 220 minutes, and included 15 sixes – a record for first-class matches which stood for 32 years.

Reid published two autobiographies, Sword of Willow (1962) and A Million Miles of Cricket (1966). Joseph Romanos’s John Reid: A Cricketing Life appeared in 2000.

Reid was a keen fisherman, and an enthusiastic photographer. He was appointed OBE in 1963.

John Reid married Norli Le Fevre in 1951; they had a son and two daughters. Their son, Richard Reid, represented New Zealand in nine one-day internationals between 1988 and 1991.

John Reid, born June 3 1928, died October 14 2020