John Sparling
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| Batting style | Right-hand bat | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bowling style | Right-arm offbreak | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Source: CricketArchive | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
John Trevor Sparling (born 24 July 1938, Mount Eden, Auckland) is a former New Zealand cricketer who played in 11 Tests from 1958 to 1964.
A stocky, fair-haired, off-spinning all-rounder, Sparling was educated at Auckland Grammar School. Coached in Auckland by Jim Laker, he broke into the Auckland team at the age of 18. A year and a half later, he was the youngest member of the New Zealand cricket team that toured England in 1958. On a tour where New Zealand were badly outclassed and in a summer where the weather was almost uniformly dismal, Sparling was one of the few players to emerge with an enhanced reputation. Wisden called him the player with "undoubtedly most promise" and wrote: "A natural cricketer, he should come to the fore with so many years ahead of him."[1]
In fact, Sparling's figures for the tour were fairly modest: 513 runs at an average of less than 18 runs per innings and 38 wickets at just over 20 runs a wicket. He played in the last three of the five Tests and his 50 at Old Trafford on his 20th birthday was one of only three 50s scored by the side all summer. His stand of 61 for the seventh wicket with Eric Petrie in this match was the highest stand for New Zealand in the whole series.[2]
Predictions of a long and glorious Test career were, however, wide of the mark. Sparling played twice against the touring English side in 1958-59, three times on the New Zealand tour of South Africa in 1961-62, once against England in New Zealand in 1962-63 and twice in the home series against South Africa in 1963-64. In none of these matches did Sparling reach 50 as a batsman and in none of them did he take more than one wicket in an innings.
He continued to play for Auckland until 1970-71. His most successful season with the ball came in 1964-65, when he took 38 wickets at an average of 15.50,[3] but by then, although Sparling was still only 26, the selectors had turned to the younger spin-bowling all-rounders Bryan Yuile, Vic Pollard and Ross Morgan. His career-best figures that year, 7 for 49 for Auckland against Otago, took Auckland to a narrow victory.[4]
Trivia
At Auckland in the New Zealand v England Test match in February 1963, Sparling bowled an 11-ball over when the umpire, Dick Shortt, lost count of the number of balls he had bowled.[5]
References
- ↑ Wisden 1959, p. 227.
- ↑ Wisden 1959, p. 229-67.
- ↑ Bowling by season
- ↑ Auckland v Otago, 1964-65
- ↑ The XI worst overs Retrieved 4 November 2012
