Cricket Legend Martin Donnelly Remembered in Warwickshire

Legendary New Zealand batsman, Ngaruawahia-born Martin Donnelly, who also briefly played rugby for England, was a member of the Warwickshire County Cricket Club in the late 1940s impressing local fans with his skill.

“As a 14-year-old schoolboy, along with my cricket loving friends, I would race to the Courtaulds Cricket Ground in Lockhurst Lane to watch Warwickshire play,” fan Alan Harris recalls in a Coventry Telegraph story.

“On that day in August 1948 we were privileged to see one of the great batsmen of that era, Martin Donnelly a left-handed New Zealander batsman. He was described in 1960, by Neville Cardus the famous cricket writer, as the finest left-handed overseas batsmen since the Second World War, and by [British cricketer] C B Fry as the best left-handed batsman he had seen.

“Donnelly was a superb fielder and I remember he had the ability the throw a cricket ball underarm from the boundary straight into the wicketkeeper’s gloves.”

According to Wikipedia: “Despite having played only 13 of his 131 first-class matches in New Zealand, and in only 7 Test matches, none of which were in New Zealand, Donnelly was elevated to the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame in 1990 and died in Sydney on 22 October 1999.”

The late sportswriter, Dunedin man Rod Nye chronicled Donnelly’s life in a biography entitled, Martin Donnelly: New Zealand Cricket’s Master Craftsman, which was published in 1999.

Original article by Alan Harris, Coventry Telegraph, January 26, 2015.