Out of the Shade

Sir Richard Hadlee and his father, Walter are probably one of the most successful father-son sporting combinations according to the Guardian’s Will Buckley, but this son doesn’t want to be compared. Richard Hadlee, chairman of the New Zealand board of selectors, is happy to talk about how he dodged his father’s shadow. “You don’t want to have people think you only got where you did because your dad was in a position of influence,” he says. One way of distinguishing himself was to have a different speciality. “My brother Dayle and I had to develop a new image, a record which could not be compared with Dad. We got there as bowlers, not batsmen.” In his career, Hadlee made the double hundred, the first person since Fred Titmus in 1967 to do so, and it was carried off in style. He averaged more than 50 with the bat and less than 15 with the ball. Bang on budget.