Among the pioneers of cricket, Trish McKelvey holds a special place in women’s cricket, especially in New Zealand cricket.
Born in Wellington on January 5th 1942, she went on to play for the club for 20 years and did play some Netball when she was young.
After playing for six years in Wellington, She played her first match for New Zealand in 1966. She was also the skipper for the team. She led the team that toured to the UK.
Those days, the players didn’t exactly have a uniform. So, when the team was announced, the New Zealand Women’s council sent fabric and the pattern for the uniform and asked the players to get it done. The players were provided money to buy heels and gloves, hats were made mandatory for their visit to Buckingham Palace. The women wore something that was white and had the pattern provided by the council. Those days, the women used to wear culottes. In order to be “uniform”, the women were asked to kneel, and the length of culottes was measured. Also, the socks were pulled up all the times. That was one phase where women had to undergo a lot for the “uniform”. The things did change with years, thankfully.
Coming back to the matches in the tour, McKelvey led the team against a powerful England team which was led by Heyhoe-Flint. McKelvey had 63 runs in the tour. Three years later, New Zealand hosted England. While the team went down 2-0, McKelvey scored her first Test hundred in the first Test of the series. She made 155* runs and made sure that the Test was a draw. However, England were way too strong for New Zealand.
Years later, in 1972, New Zealand toured to Australia for one-off Test to Melbourne where she led the team to their first-ever Test win. New Zealand went on to win the Test by 143 runs.
Days later, the team toured to South Africa and in the first match, she made 43 and 117*. The Test ended in a draw. However, the team won the series 1-0 after winning the 2nd Test of the 3-match series.
She then went on to lead the team in a few more Tests against Australia, England, India and South Africa. The team managed to draw every single one. In her Test career, she had 2 wins and 3 losses from 14 matches. She is the only New Zealand skipper with a Test win and nobody has led the team in more than 6 matches.
McKelvey also represented and captained the White Ferns in the ODIs. She also played for the International XI.
Her debut ODI came against England in the 1973 World Cup where she represented International XI. She scored 54 in her debut match. However, the team went down to England. She ended the tournament with 106 runs from 6 innings.
She then led New Zealand in the 1978 World Cup where the team ended with a win and two losses from their 3 games. She made 64 runs in the tournament. In the 1982 World Cup, New Zealand went on to win 6 out of their 12 matches, and McKelvey played a significant role in that as well. She ended her ODI career with 320 runs.
After her retirement, years later, in 1992, she became the first woman board member of New Zealand cricket board.
Image courtesy: NZ Museums
