Christopher Stewart Martin (born 10 December 1974) is a former

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er. A right-arm fast-medium bowler, Martin played provincial cricket for

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

, having formerly played for the Canterbury Wizards. He also signed for the English

county cricket Inter-county cricket matches have been played since the early 18th century, involving teams that are representative of the historic counties of England and Wales. Two county championship competitions have existed since the late 19th century at ...

side,

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Ox ...

, for their 2008 domestic campaign and played one first-class match for

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

in 2010. In 1999 he played a season of club cricket in Scotland for Heriots FP Cricket Club. He retired from all cricket in late 2013.

International career

Martin is one of seven

Test cricketers to have taken 200 wickets. In 2011 he was recognised as New Zealand's premier cricketer, when he was awarded the inaugural Sir Richard Hadlee Medal, at the

cricket awards ceremony. Although predominantly a Test bowler, Martin moved back into contention for One Day Internationals after

International Cricket Council The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the global Sports governing body, governing body of cricket. It was founded as the Imperial Cricket Conference in 1909 by representatives from Australia, England, and South Africa. In 1965, the body wa ...

rule changes permitted substitutions during games. Although the rule has since been revoked, Martin has remained on the fringes of the ODI squad and was called up to the New Zealand World Cup 2007 squad, as a replacement for the injured Daryl Tuffey.

Batting ability

Martin was well known for being an extremely poor batsman, even by the low standards generally expected of tail-end batsman, and his batting gained him more publicity than his bowling. Martin has the rather dubious distinction of belonging to a select group of cricketers whose number of wickets taken exceeds runs scored; Bhagwat Chandrasekhar is the only other cricketer to meet this distinction (assuming a qualification of 30 Tests played), and only Holcombe "Hopper" Read – who played when pitches were uncovered – has played Test cricket and finished with a lower first-class batting average than Martin. Martin failed to score a run in Test Cricket from December 2nd 2000 to March 26th 2004, during which time he took 41 Test wickets. Martin holds the record for the most

pair Pair or PAIR or Pairing may refer to: Government and politics * Pair (parliamentary convention), matching of members unable to attend, so as not to change the voting margin * ''Pair'', a member of the Prussian House of Lords * ''Pair'', the Fren ...

s recorded in Test match history (7). He is also the only cricketer to be dismissed for a diamond duck (run out on 0 without facing a ball) twice in Test cricket – against England in 2004 and South Africa in 2013. On 9 January 2011, Martin notched up the milestone of 100 career Test match runs in the 1st Test against Pakistan at Seddon Park. He took his 500th wicket in first-class cricket, with the dismissal of Tanvir Ahmed on the third day of the first Test against Pakistan in January 2011.

Retirement

Martin's final year of professional cricket was 2013; playing his last Test Match in January, his last First Class game in February (ending on 599 wickets), and his last List A (and professional) game on March 31st, before announcing his retirement from all forms of cricket on July 3rd. Martin bowed out as the third highest Test wicket-taker in New Zealand's history with 233 scalps behind

Richard Hadlee Sir Richard John Hadlee (born 3 July 1951) is a New Zealand former cricketer. Hadlee is widely regarded as one of the greatest all-rounders in cricket history, and amongst the very finest fast bowlers. Hadlee was appointed an MBE in the 1 ...

(431) and

Daniel Vettori Daniel Luca Vettori (born 27 January 1979) is a New Zealand cricket coach and former cricketer who played for the New Zealand national cricket team. He was the 200th player to win their Test cricket cap for New Zealand and an inductee in the Ne ...

(362). He currently sits 6th, having been overtaken by the contemporary trio of

Tim Southee Timothy Grant Southee (born 11 December 1988), is a former New Zealand international cricketer who has captained New Zealand cricket team in all formats of the game. He is a right-arm medium-fast bowler and a hard-hitting lower order batsman. ...

(391),

Trent Boult Trent Alexander Boult (born 22 July 1989) is a former New Zealand cricketer who represented the New Zealand national cricket team, New Zealand cricket team in all formats between 2011 and 2024. He continues to play in various Twenty20 leagues ar ...

(317) and Neil Wagner (260).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Martin, Chris 1974 births Living people Auckland cricketers Canterbury cricketers Warwickshire cricketers New Zealand expatriate cricketers in England New Zealand One Day International cricketers New Zealand Test cricketers New Zealand Twenty20 International cricketers New Zealand cricketers Essex cricketers South Island cricketers