Famous Cricketers No 79 - Richard Hadlee

However, by the time he had retired in 1990, the Kiwis had recorded another 22 victories and Hadlee had played a significant part in nearly all of them. Outside the Test arena, Hadlee often lifted the spirits of the New Zealanders on tour with some splendid performances. On his first tour of England in 1973, he took eight wickets in the match against Lancashire as the tourists gained an important victory on the eve of the First Test. Splendid bowling by Hadlee saw Warwickshire swept aside on the 1978 tour as the New Zealanders recorded their second successive innings victory, having beaten Middlesex in similar fashion in the previous game. Against Worcestershire, on both the 1983 and 1990 tours, Hadlee rescued the tourists with two fine all-round displays. In Australia, he boosted the spirits of the Kiwis on their 1980/81 tour by scoring a century and taking five wickets in an innings in the match against Queensland. Then on his last tour of Australia in 1987/88, he destroyed the Western Australian batting to make a mockery of the suggestions that he was past his best. And in India, on the 1988-89 tour, he reintroduced himself to the Indian cricket public by taking nine wickets in an innings against the West Zone. It was county cricket that played such an important part in the final development of Richard Hadlee as a player. However, before joining Nottinghamshire in 1978, he had turned down approaches firstly from Ray Illingworth on behalf of Leicestershire in 1973 and then by Glenn Turner who wanted him to play for Worcestershire in 1977. Nevertheless, it was in 1977 that Doug Insole made Hadlee an attractive offer to join Essex for the last part of the English season. Hadlee had even agreed terms but the deal fell through when he was told at the last moment that a three-year contract was part of the package. Playing for Nottinghamshire gave Hadlee the opportunity to make the most of his talents but his first three years with the county proved to be a most frustrating experience. Dogged by injury problems for much of the time, his appearances were further restricted because he was on tour with the New Zealanders for a good part of the 1978 season and then the following year he was playing in the World Cup. Feeling that perhaps he lacked the temperament as well as the strength and stamina for county cricket, Hadlee had decided to terminate his association with the club at the end of the 1980 season. However, after some persuasion, and the realisation that by reducing his run up from 25 to 15 paces he could cope with the daily demands of professional cricket, Hadlee returned to Nottinghamshire for the 1981 season. It was a decision that was to benefit both Hadlee and the club enormously. By the time he had played his last game for the Trent Bridge side he had many outstanding performances to his credit, including the remarkable feat of achieving the double in 1984 and thus becoming the first Nottinghamshire player to do so since Bruce Dooland in 1957. Altogether Hadlee took 622 wickets at just 14.51 each and also scored 5,854 runs at the healthy average of 38.76 in 148 first-class games for the club, not to mention his many fine deeds in the three one-day competitions. Chiefly as a result of Hadlee’s efforts, Nottinghamshire enjoyed success for the first time since the days of Harold Larwood and Bill Voce in 1929, winning the County Championship in 1981 and 1987, and the NatWest Bank Trophy also in 1987. The side was outstandingly led by that superb all-rounder, Clive Rice, and included the exciting Derek Randall, two splendid opening batsmen in Chris Broad, who joined the side from Gloucestershire in 1984, and Tim Robinson, as well as the experienced Eddie Hemmings with his off-spin. No one made a bigger impression on Hadlee or had a greater impact on his career than the great Australian fast bowler, Dennis Lillee. Hadlee spent hours watching video footage of Lillee in action and modelled himself on this magnificent bowler. Furthermore, Hadlee was particularly impressed with the way that Lillee made such a remarkable comeback following a serious back injury. Like Lillee, Hadlee overcame injury problems which threatened to shorten his career by adopting his now famous “Sunday League run-up”. However, he had to overcome fierce opposition from both the New Zealand public and the media as they completely failed to appreciate the significance of this change in 7