Born this day- Rona McKenzie
She represented New Zealand in 7 Tests. She also captained all of them including the first tour of New Zealand to England.
1954 it was. New Zealand team decided to tour England and 15 players and a manager began their month-long journey through the sea. They had to raise a fund very early, make their own uniform, had to take care of their accommodation and other costs. There was criticism about the players’ selection. The major criticism was about appointing Auckland’s Rona McKenzie as the captain.
They landed in England, took on county sides and had a decent result. However, the outrage began when they practised at the Lord’s.
The tour began with county matches with New Zealand winning 10 out of 19, drew 4 and lost 2.
Then began the Test series where all the three matches were closer than expected with England winning one and one was abandoned.
In the first Test, six of the NZ players had food poisoning right before the match and felt weak. Still, they continued to play. However, England won the Test by six wickets.
NZ drew the second one, thanks to the efforts of Clothier in the second innings who batted for 5 and half hours for her 37*.
Three years later, after the Australian tour, McKenzie played in the home series against England where she scored a 60, then in 1961 against Australia, she had a 61 before she calling it a day.
She was the first New Zealand captain who was a Maori. She passed away in 1999.
