Gentleman Jack, a southern cricket colossus
Jack Alabaster, 93, who died in Alexandra earlier this week, has a record in New Zealand cricket that will never be broken.
He was the only player to appear in New Zealand's first four Test victories against the West Indies (1956), South Africa (2 Tests in 1961-62), and India (1968). If Test status had been awarded to the 1960-61 M.C.C. tour of New Zealand, it would have been the first five Test wins.
It was the writer's experience to work in Invercargill for several years, where Alabaster was headmaster, firstly at Kingswell High School and then at Southland Boys' High School, and to have several conversations with him during that time, and subsequently. The comments in this tribute are from those conversations.
He was also the first New Zealand Test player to have played officially in all the major Test nations. His inclusion for the 1972 tour of the West Indies set him aside from his most likely challengers, John Reid, Bruce Taylor, and Glenn Turner.
He remains the oldest New Zealander to have played Test cricket, being 41 years and 247 days old when he played in the last Test of that West Indies tour. He was 51 days older than Bert Sutcliffe when he finished his career. To mark the occasion, he celebrated by having his last Test victim, Windies legend Gary Sobers, bowled for nine.
Alabaster took 500 wickets across his first-class career at an average of 25.37, a remarkable rate for a spin bowler at the time.
Alabaster said his abiding memory of the tour was the consistency and sameness of conditions throughout South Africa.
"The cricket was the same, and the players played in largely the same style. The pitches had consistent bounce, well-grassed, and the weather was consistently good.
"I remember the feeling of being part of the success of one of New Zealand's best tours at that time, and of the hospitality."
Alabaster played a significant role in the first New Zealand win away from home, in the third Test at Newlands in Cape Town. He took four wickets in each innings as New Zealand claimed a 72-run win.
"I came on as first change in the attack. That happened quite frequently on that tour. I wasn't complaining, it was a change to be used in that kind of attacking role rather than being looked at when they said, 'Who can we get to bowl next?'
"South African batsmen since the mid-1930s did not cope with back-of-the-hand spinners. Grimmett, O'Reilly, Johnny Wardle and Richie Benaud all did well there. The South Africans didn't know how to play them, and they didn't have any leg-spinners of their own."
Alabaster said the New Zealanders, once on top in the game, never felt they would lose, and he enjoyed his 50-over stint in the second innings.
"It didn't happen that often, but sometimes he [skipper Reid] did leave me on too long, and when that happens your fingers get tired, and the ball doesn't spin so much. If you have half a dozen overs off, it made all the difference."
South Africa star Roy McLean said both Dick Motz and Alabaster deserved plaudits for their tenacity and refusal to admit defeat in every match.
"In Alabaster we were privileged to meet the finest leg-spinner – a genuine finger worked – seen in this country for many years."
In the drawn five-Test series in South Africa, Alabaster was New Zealand's top wicket-taker with 22 wickets at 28.04. On the tour, including games against New South Wales and South Australia on their way home, he again headed the wicket table with 88 wickets at 27.14.
After New Zealand's first win over England at the Basin Reserve in 1978, Alabaster said the success gave him a feeling of great joy initially, and then a feeling of anti-climax.
"The joy of the moment was unbelievable initially. For all people involved, it has been a tremendous satisfaction."
He said England was guilty of going into the Test thinking it had superior fast bowlers, but succumbed to the New Zealand attack spearheaded by Richard and Dayle Hadlee and Richard Collinge.
"I appreciated the way the New Zealand bowlers went about achieving the win. There was purpose, direction, and except in very odd moments, no slackening in that purpose. A feature of the match was that at no stage did it look as if it would get away from New Zealand."
Alabaster played seven official Tests against England but had been part of the side that beat Denis Silk's M.C.C. team in Wellington in 1961, the year before New Zealand's tour of South Africa.
New Zealand scored 148 in its first innings and dismissed the M.C.C. for 111. Batting a second time, New Zealand, through John Sparling's 60 and John Reid's 83, scored 228 and then dismissed the M.C.C. for 132, a win by 133 runs. Alabaster took one for six in the first innings and 5-71 in the second.
His 12 wickets in the three-'Test' series cost 24.16 runs.
At a time when there was little coaching in leg-spin bowling, the maths teacher and future headmaster said he saw leg-spin as a field of opportunity in the game.
He advanced through self-analysis and the appeal of leg-spin, as he put it, having 'an element of the ridiculous.'
"Leg-spin can make the batsman look more ridiculous than anything else. It is understandable when batsmen are fooled by pace, but they can be absolutely fooled by leg-spin.
"One of the most satisfying moments in bowling leg-spin is to have planned the dismissal of a batsman. Leg-spin as a craft is a planning business.
"The very best moment is to watch the increasing gamp which develops between bat and pad, and then to bowl a wrong 'un and see is disappear through the gap and then hear the results. You don't see the ball hit the wickets, but you hear it, and then see the bails flying."
If there was a frustration in his career, it was his non-selection for the 1965 tour of India, Pakistan and England. He had been injured during the season but was not contacted at any stage to see if he had recovered, nor invited to participate in a trial from which Vivian emerged.
The decision went against all the good things happening in the New Zealand game, especially from planning the 1961-62 tour to South Africa.
Graham Vivian, an 18-year-old, was selected instead, and Alabaster felt that with seven Tests in India and Pakistan at the start of the tour, it was tough for Vivian to be expected to succeed in those conditions.
"I felt we had learned a lot of things about selecting teams between 1957 and 1963. It was, for New Zealand, a successful period in relative terms.
"We had reasonable success against Australia, the M.C.C., and on the South African tour because we stuck to players who had proven they could perform. We were not playing for a place all the time, and anybody else looking to get into the team had to prove themselves.
"I thought we had gone contrary to what we had learned."