Richard Hadlee

New Zealand cricketer, first to 400 Test wickets.

Many consider Hadlee among the finest all-rounders and fast bowlers cricket has ever seen.^[1] For his cricket contributions, Hadlee received a knighthood in the 1990 Queen's Birthday Honours List.^[2]

Quick Facts

Country

New Zealand

Full name

Richard John Hadlee

Nickname

Paddles, Sir Paddles

Born

3 July 1951

Birthplace

St Albans, New Zealand

Family

Walter Hadlee (father)
Barry Hadlee (brother)
Dayle Hadlee (brother)

Batting

Left-handed

Bowling

Right-arm fast

Facts from the source article.

Life and work

Hadlee took 431 Test wickets, at the time a world record, and was the first bowler to pass 400 wickets.^[3] He also scored 3124 Test runs, including two centuries and 15 fifties.^[3] Hadlee established The Sir Richard Hadlee Sports Trust in August 1990 to help disadvantaged sportspeople under age 25 from Canterbury.^[4] A bowel cancer diagnosis came in June 2018, leading to surgery to remove a tumour.^[5]

The 1980 Queen's Birthday Honours saw Hadlee made a Member of the Order of the British Empire.^[6]

What the cited sources add

A Wisden Almanack article describes Hadlee as one of the greatest seam bowlers in history.^[7] The same source divides his international bowling career into three periods: erratic early years, a coming-of-age phase from 1977 to 1980, and a final decade where he raced to 431 Test wickets.^[7] Hadlee brought deep thought and immense concentration to fast bowling in the second half of his career, according to the Wisden piece.^[7] The Wisden article notes that Hadlee's nearest approach to taking all ten wickets in an innings was 9-52 against Australia in Brisbane in November 1985.^[7]

Hadlee acknowledged the debt he owed to management consultant Grahame Felton, who changed his character after a near-breakdown in 1983.^[7]

References

Wikipedia, "Richard Hadlee" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Richard Hadlee: 'The Most Intelligent Fast Bowler Ever' Wisden Almanack", Wisden, 3 July 2019 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Richard Hadlee" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Murali 'best bowler ever'", BBC News, December 2002 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Richard Hadlee" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Richard Hadlee", ESPNcricinfo (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Richard Hadlee" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "The Sir Richard Hadlee Sports Trust. (2008).", The Sir Richard Hadlee Sports Trust (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Richard Hadlee" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Sir Richard Hadlee: New Zealand Legend Diagnosed with Bowel Cancer", BBC, 15 June 2018 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Richard Hadlee" (CC BY-SA 4.0) en.wikipedia.org
"Richard Hadlee: 'The Most Intelligent Fast Bowler Ever' Wisden Almanack", Wisden, 3 July 2019. facts only, no text reused. wisden.com

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Richard Hadlee (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.