Barry Sinclair - one of cricket's gentlemen

It's a reflection of the way cricket used to operate in the bad old days that Barry Sinclair, who died aged 85 this week, was given about five minutes’ notice that he was to become the country's latest Test cricket captain.

While returning on a train with Wellington from a Plunket Shield game with Auckland ahead of the MCC tour of NZ in 1966, the convener of New Zealand selectors Walter Hadlee, who had been at the game, spoke with Sinclair.

Barry Sinclair receiving his Member of New Zealand’s Order of Merit for services to cricket from Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy at Government House in 2016 (GG.Govt.NZ)

As John Reid had retired, and both Graham Dowling and John Sparling were unavailable, Hadlee mentioned that the selectors wanted to make Sinclair vice-captain to Murray Chapple, and then decide after that who would become the permanent captain.

Sinclair, a diminutive figure, had never captained a side. That had always fallen to his good mate at Rongotai College and the Kilbirnie club, the late Don Neely. Sinclair started first-class cricket in the 1955-56 season, and first played for New Zealand in the 1959/60 series against Ian Craig's Australian XI.

The Australian connection was to prove significant in his career, but after touring India, Pakistan and England in 1965, it was the following season at home that thrust him into a leadership role.

Interviewed as part of a Sports History paper at Albany's Massey University campus, Sinclair told me, "Murray Chapple was made captain for the first Test, in Christchurch. Then we went to Dunedin, we were out fielding, having a few catches and mucking around [on the first morning of the Test].

"Then, about 25 to 11, you came in and had a cup of tea. While I was doing that our manager, John Heslop came into the changing room and said: 'Oh, you had better put a blazer on because you're captain, Murray's not playing, so go out and toss with Mike [MJK] Smith – the MCC captain.'

"Of course, I being a polite little boy just did as I was told. I went out there, and didn't have any coins to toss with. [Umpire] Dennis Copps provided the coin for me to make the toss."

Such a situation would be unbelievable to many participating in cricket nowadays. But at the time it was par for the course.

The game was eventually rained out and New Zealand played for a draw in the next Test in Auckland with Sinclair involved in controversy for not bowling spin bowler Tom Puna as New Zealand played for a draw.

But with Chapple retiring, the job became Sinclair's. He recalled there was never any assistance in fulfilling the role. The closest thing he got to support was a chat or two with New Zealand's professional coach Martin Horton, the former Worcestershire professional who had been employed by the New Zealand Cricket Council.

Merv Wallace, the 1937-49 tourist, wasn't used by New Zealand at the time, and the only contact Sinclair had with him was on visits to Auckland where he went and chatted to him in his sports goods shop.

However, Sinclair was about to enter a significant phase of his career, which was also important for the advances New Zealand cricket made in the years that followed.

In the 1967 season, an Australian XI toured the country under Les Favell's captaincy. It proved a big help for Sinclair.

"Les Favell was good. He was a good, decent guy. He was a little Aussie battler in some ways. He wasn't a very big guy, he was a little bigger than me, but he walked with a bit of a swagger, and he always laughed and talked.

"It was when we went to New Plymouth to play the first 'Test' on a Bunsen burner [turner] at Pukekura Park. We had Bryan Yuile and Vic Pollard and they only had Peter Philpott to bowl some leggies.

"Anyway, Favell came to me before the first day and said: 'I think we have to sort something out here. At the end of the day's play, we would like the beer to go down to the fielding team's dressing room, and both teams get together.'

"It was a bit of a struggle to do that, the officials weren't too keen. But it was great for us. Norm O'Neill's there, Peter Burge, Brian Booth, Paul Sheahan, Barry Jarman, John Gleeson and others, and  and Dick Motz was having a beer with their fast bowlers, and it was a real good exchange of ideas and thinking," he said.

New Zealand secured a win in New Plymouth, courtesy of Yuile (7-119) and Pollard (11-91) and went on to win the series are rain saved the Christchurch Test and Dunedin was rained out. New Zealand scored 400 in the fourth Test in Auckland, so the game was drawn.

That tour was backed up by a visit to Australia at the end of 1967.

"It was a big challenge in so far as we didn't do all that well but, Australia, because of how we had done at home earlier in the year, had more respect for us than there might have been.

"For example, when we arrived, we had flown to Melbourne and then caught the train for Adelaide. Sir Donald Bradman was on the station at 7 o'clock in the morning helping people with their bags off the train. He was in our camp at that stage and was really good," he said.

Sinclair didn't enjoy the limelight but appreciated Bradman's gesture of inviting Sinclair, vice-captain Vic Pollard and the team manager Joe Ongley [later a Supreme Court judge] to dinner at his home with Les Favell, Barry Jarman and their wives.

Sinclair made his mark on the Aussies. Earlier, during their tour of New Zealand, Sinclair got among the runs for Wellington at the Basin Reserve.

"I went from 88 to 100 on three hits, three boundaries, off Philpott. They took the new ball and I hit South Australian bowler Eric Freeman off the back foot, over the sightscreen at the southern end of the ground. Well, he wasn't too happy about that. A big giant like me had smashed him. I got another 48 in 20 minutes.

"Alan Connolly came on and bowled a bouncer that I pulled high and hard and I thought, 'That's going down Adelaide Road, that's going to the hospital.'

"But then I saw this big, lanky kid, six foot five of him, an Aussie Rules player, [Paul Sheahan] jumping in the air and pulling it in."

So, it was no surprise that when New Zealand got to Adelaide, Sinclair was aware that Freeman was looking for him, and he copped a fair share of bouncers on the Adelaide Oval, and it had its effect, as Freeman got him twice, as New Zealand lost by 24 runs to the South Australians.

Sadly, Sinclair's career was coming to an end. He captained the side in the first Test against the Nawab of Pataudi's Indian side in 1968 but was injured with Graham Dowling taking over and leading New Zealand to its fourth Test victory in the second Test at Lancaster Park. Sinclair returned for the fourth Test but it proved the last of his career.

In 21 Tests he scored 1148 runs at 29.44, including three centuries. His highest Test innings was 138 against South Africa - the first Test century scored on Eden Park by a New Zealand batsman.

In his first-class career, he totalled 6114 runs at 32.87.

While cricket was still very much an amateur game in New Zealand, the efforts of Sinclair, and those from his era, laid the foundations that started to make New Zealand more competitive within the next decade.