MacDonald unavailable

Press, 20 October 1986, Page 25

MacDonald unavailable

By

JOHN COFFEY

Garry MacDonald, the Marist left-arm spin bowler who played 11 matches for Canterbury during the last two summers, is not available for representative cricket this season.

MacDonald informed the convener of the provincial selection panel, Brian Salt, on Saturday, that he would be out of contention because of work commitments.

It has not been a happy month for Mr Salt and his fellow selectors, Doug Frampton and Bryan Andrews. The unavailability of MacDonald comes after the retirement of Ash Hart, a serious injury to Peter Kennedy, uncertainty as to John Wright’s plans, and wet weather which has ruined, the first three inter-club playing days. Although his term in the Canterbury side was comparatively brief, MacDonald enjoyed a particularly successful first

season in 1984-85. In eight games he took 20 wickets at an average of 22.4. He had spectacular returns from Canterbury’s fixture with the Pakistani tourists, with career-best figures of six for 62 and a stunning fielding effort.

Four of MacDonald’s victims were caught by the bowler, the first such occurrence in New Zealand first-class cricket history. Adding to the lustre of his display, MacDonald was making his cricket debut at Lancaster Park

— he had played rugby on the oval — and was asked to bowl when Pakistan’s senior batsman, Javed Miandad and Mudassar Nazar, were in full flight in a century-plus partnership.

His fifth catch in that innings estalished a new Canterbury record, erasing the names of T. W. Reese (1889-90), A. Sims (1897-98) and K. M. 01liver (1904-05), and equalling the New Zealand

standard. * In all, MacDonald held six catches in the match with Pakistan. Seven other New Zealanders had performed that feat, only lan Cromb while representing Canterbury. MacDonald had already established some milestones all of his own. He was the second Maori, and the first for 90 years, to play for Canterbury, and his selection coincided with his Marist club’s first summer in senior cricket. Before transferring to Christchurch to start a five-year term with High School Old Boys, MacDonald had represented Marlborough and been twelfth man for Central Districts. MacDonald, aged 30, was a particularly popular member of the Canterbury squad. He will continue to be one of Marist’s most effective players with his spinning wiles and useful lower-order batting.