Geoff Howarth

Geoff Howarth
Personal information
Full name Geoffrey Philip Howarth
Born 29 March 1951
Auckland, New Zealand
Batting style Right-handed
Bowling style Right-arm off break
Relations Hedley Howarth (brother)
International information
National side
  • New Zealand
Test debut 20 February 1975 v England
Last Test 4 May 1985 v West Indies
ODI debut 8 March 1975 v England
Last ODI 23 April 1985 v West Indies
Domestic team information
YearsTeam
1971–1985 Surrey
1972–1974 Auckland
1974–1986 Northern Districts
Career statistics
Competition Tests ODIs FC LA
Matches 47 70 338 278
Runs scored 2,531 1,384 17,294 5,997
Batting average 32.44 23.06 31.90 23.98
100s/50s 6/11 0/6 32/88 2/29
Top score 147 76 183 122
Balls bowled 614 90 8,525 682
Wickets 3 3 112 24
Bowling average 90.33 22.66 32.10 20.29
5 wickets in innings 0 0 1 0
10 wickets in match 0 0 0 0
Best bowling 1/13 1/4 5/32 4/16
Catches/stumpings 29/– 16/– 229/– 76/–
Source: Cricket Archive, 22 October 2010

Geoffrey "Geoff" Philip Howarth, OBE (born 29 March 1951), is a former New Zealand cricketer, who remains the only New Zealand captain to have positive win-loss records in both Test cricket and ODI cricket.

Howarth played some Test cricket with his elder brother Hedley, but most of his 47-Test career did not overlap with Hedley's. He played most of his career as a specialist batsman, captaining the team for 30 of those 47 Tests, and although his batting average of only 32 was not stunning, he did make six Test centuries. Four of those came while he was not captaining the side.

In his debut series as captain, he led the side to their first Test series victory over the West Indies, when New Zealand won the first Test chasing 104 after being 73 for 8, then drew the second Test thanks to 147 from Howarth, and also survived an evenly-fought third Test. He also became coach for the New Zealand team in the early 1990s and was coach of the ill-fated tour of South Africa in 1994.

His highest first-class score was 183, for Surrey against Hampshire at The Oval in 1979, "a cultured innings lasting four hours"[1] which helped Surrey to an eight-wicket victory. His best bowling figures were 5 for 32 for Auckland against Central Districts at Auckland in 1973-74.

Howarth played 188 matches for Surrey County Cricket Club in England between 1971 and 1985, and was the first overseas player to captain the club, which he did in 1984–85.

Howarth was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire for services to cricket in the 1981 Queen's Birthday Honours.[2] In the 1984 Queen's Birthday Honours, he was promoted to Officer of the Order of the British Empire.[3]

References

  1. ↑ Wisden 1980, p. 570.
  2. ↑ London Gazette (supplement), No. 48641, 12 June 1981. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
  3. ↑ London Gazette (supplement), No. 49769, 15 June 1984. Retrieved 6 February 2013.

External links

Preceded by
Mark Burgess		 New Zealand national cricket captain
1979/80–1984/85 		Succeeded by
Jeremy Coney