Mark John Greatbatch (born 11 December 1963) is a former New Zealand international

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. He scored more than 2,000 runs in his 41 Test matches for

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 ...

. A left-handed batsman and occasional right-arm medium pace bowler in

first class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

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 ...

and

Central Districts The Central Stags, formerly known as Central Districts, are a first-class cricket team based in central New Zealand. They are the men's representative side of the Central Districts Cricket Association. They compete in the Plunket Shield firs ...

, Greatbatch scored 9,890 first class runs in total as well as being an occasional wicket keeper.

International career

Greatbatch highest test score of 146 not out off 485 balls was against Australia at

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in November 1989. Greatbatch was at the crease for 11 hours (2 days) to save New Zealand from defeat, the game ending in a draw because of his efforts. He received a standing ovation at the end of the game. Greatbatch's defensive innings is still considered by pundits to be one of the greatest cricket centuries ever, under the circumstances. For the

1992 Cricket World Cup The 1992 Cricket World Cup (known as the Benson & Hedges World Cup 1992 for sponsorship reasons) was the fifth Cricket World Cup, the premier One Day International cricket tournament for men's national teams, organised by the International Cric ...

Greatbatch was not selected to play in the first match, against

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. However, he was selected to open against South Africa in place of John Wright, who had been injured, and proceeded to bat to take advantage of fielding restrictions early in the innings. The strategy worked, so was repeated again throughout the World Cup and Greatbatch became one of the first '

pinch hitter In baseball, a pinch hitter (PH) is a substitute batter. Batters can be substituted at any time while the ball is dead (not in active play); the manager may use any player who has not yet entered the game as a substitute. Unlike basketball, A ...

' players to open an innings in

One Day International One Day International (ODI) is a format of cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of fifty overs, with the game lasting up to 7 hours. The World Cup, generally held every four yea ...

s. Because of this success other cricketing nations, notably

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

, adopted the idea of opening with an aggressive batsman who normally plays in the middle order of test matches to score quick runs early and this tactic is now common in international cricket. Mark Greatbatch finished his career with 2,021 Test runs and 2,206 ODI runs.

After cricket

In September 2005 he became director of coaching at

Warwickshire County Cricket Club Warwickshire County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class cricket, first-class county cricket, county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the Historic counties of England, historic county of ...

in England. After relegation from both the

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and Pro40 League in 2007 he was replaced by

Ashley Giles Ashley Fraser Giles (born 19 March 1973) is a former English first-class cricketer, who played 54 Test matches and 62 One Day Internationals for England before being forced to retire due to a recurring hip injury. Giles played the entirety of ...

. In January, 2010, Greatbatch was appointed the coach of the New Zealand national cricket team.Greatbatch handed New Zealand team coaching role
retrieved 30 January 2010 In 2022,

Asterix ''Asterix'' ( or , "Asterix the Gauls, Gaul"; also known as ''Asterix and Obelix'' in some adaptations or ''The Adventures of Asterix'') is a Franco-Belgian comics, French comic album book series, series about a Gaulish village which, thanks ...

, a horse that Greatbatch partly owned, won the New Zealand Derby.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Greatbatch, Mark 1963 births Living people Auckland cricketers Central Districts cricketers New Zealand One Day International cricketers New Zealand Test cricketers Cricketers who made a century on Test debut Cricketers at the 1992 Cricket World Cup New Zealand cricketers Cricketers from Auckland New Zealand national cricket team selectors New Zealand cricket coaches Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Coaches of the New Zealand national cricket team M Parkinson's World XI cricketers North Island cricketers