Chris Martin (cricketer)

Chris Martin

Personal information
Full name	Christopher Stewart Martin
Born	(1974-12-10) 10 December 1974 Christchurch, New Zealand
Nickname	The Phantom, The Walking Wicket, Tommy
Batting style	Right Handed
Bowling style	Right-arm fast-medium
Role	Bowler
International information
National side	New Zealand
Test debut (cap 211)	17 November 2000 v South Africa
Last Test	2 January 2013 v South Africa
ODI debut (cap 119)	2 January 2001 v Zimbabwe
Last ODI	23 February 2008 v England
Domestic team information
Years	Team
2005–present	Auckland
2008	Warwickshire
1997–2004	Canterbury
2010	Essex
Career statistics
Competition Test ODI T20I FC Matches 71 20 6 189 Runs scored 123 8 5 473 Batting average 2.36 1.60 - 3.78 100s/50s 0/0 0/0 0/0 0/0 Top score 12* 3 5* 25 Balls bowled 14,026 948 138 36,142 Wickets 233 18 7 588 Bowling average 33.81 44.66 27.57 31.62 5 wickets in innings 10 0 0 23 10 wickets in match 1 n/a 0 1 Best bowling 6/26 3/62 2/14 6/26 Catches/stumpings 14/– 7/– 1/– 33/–
Source: Cricinfo, 5 January 2013

Christopher Stewart "Chris" Martin (born 10 December 1974) is a New Zealand cricketer. A right-arm fast-medium bowler, Martin played provincial cricket for Auckland, having formerly played for the Canterbury Wizards. He also signed for the English county cricket side, Warwickshire, for their 2008 domestic campaign and played one first-class match for Essex in 2010. In 1999 he played a season of club cricket in Scotland for Heriots FP Cricket Club. Martin retired from the sport in 2013.

Career

Martin is one of four New Zealand Test cricketers to have taken 200 wickets. In 2011 he was recognised as New Zealand's premier cricketer, when he was awarded the inaugural Sir Richard Hadlee Medal, at the New Zealand cricket awards ceremony. Although predominantly a Test bowler, Martin moved back into contention for One Day Internationals after International Cricket Council rule changes permitted substitutions during games. Although the rule has since been revoked, Martin has remained on the fringes of the ODI squad and was called up to the New Zealand World Cup 2007 squad, as a replacement for the injured Daryl Tuffey.

Martin is an archetypal tail-end batsman. His batting gets more publicity than his bowling. Martin has the rather dubious honour of belonging to a select group of cricketers whose number of wickets taken exceeds runs scored; Bhagwat Chandrasekhar is the only other cricketer to have achieved this “honour” (assuming a qualification of 30 Tests played), and only Alf Hall and Holcombe “Hopper” Read – both of whom played when pitches were uncovered – have played Test cricket and finished with a lower first-class batting average. Martin also holds the record for the most pairs recorded in Test match history. On 9 January 2011, Martin notched up the milestone of 100 career Test match runs in the 1st Test against Pakistan at Seddon Park. He took his 500th wicket in first-class cricket, with the dismissal of Tanvir Ahmed on the third day of the first Test against Pakistan in January 2011.

On 20 June 2011, Martin was seen bowling in the nets to Martin Crowe, who was on his own comeback trail. Then it was revealed that Martin had been a net bowler for Crowe as a teenager.

On 3 July 2013 Martin announced his retirement from all forms of cricket. He bowed out as the third highest Test wicket-taker in New Zealand’s history.

External links

• Player profile: Chris Martin from ESPNcricinfo
• Player profile: Chris Martin from CricketArchive