Former Black Caps captain Ken Rutherford made his test debut at 19 against the greatest fast bowling attack in cricket history, scored 12 runs in his first seven innings, and came back to play 56 tests, captain New Zealand and be part of the 1992 Cricket World Cup run that stopped the country.
Jason Davis and KJ sit down with Ken on the ShedLife NZ Podcast for the full story, from south Dunedin club cricket to leading his country. Ken grew up working class on Oxford Street in south Dunedin, a few doors down from the McCullums, and was playing first class cricket for Otago at 17.
Two years later he was named in the New Zealand side for the 1985 tour of the West Indies, alongside Richard Hadlee, John Wright, Jeremy Coney and Ian Smith, and thrown straight in against Malcolm Marshall, Joel Garner and Michael Holding. He talks about what that actually felt like at 19, getting hit in the chest by Holding before he could lift the bat, and why he never gave up on it.
He takes us inside the 1992 World Cup, when he was told a month out that he was not even in the reckoning, then got the call and averaged over 42 for the tournament. Beating Australia at a half empty Eden Park, Mark Greatbatch going after the new ball, Dipak Patel opening the bowling, the country getting behind them, and the semifinal against Pakistan that got away. Then captaining New Zealand. The 1994 test win at the Wanderers in Johannesburg, calling heads and batting first when the entire changing room wanted to bowl, and winning the series in South Africa 2-1. Five years at Transvaal, two seasons coaching Ireland, a long career in racing and wagering with the New Zealand TAB and Singapore Pools, and what he says is the hardest job he has ever had, CEO of Northern Districts Cricket.
Ken does not hold back on how over governed sport in New Zealand has become. There are some great yarns in this one too. The triple hundred at Scarborough on no sleep, a few quiet ones in a Swansea pub with John Wright while the game was still going, Shane Warne at the SCG, bumping into James Earl Jones in a lift in Joburg, and his son Hamish Rutherford scoring 171 on debut against England, which Ken says was a far bigger moment than anything he did himself.
A proper Kiwi story from a bloke who kept turning up.
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