Michael Hugh William Papps (born 2 July 1979) is a former New Zealand

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er. In October 2016, he became the first player to score 10,000 runs in the Plunket Shield. In April 2018, he announced his retirement from the game.

Domestic career

Papps made his first-class debut in the 1998–99 season for his local provincial club Canterbury Wizards, for which he would go on to make 6,663 runs, second most for an individual player for one province. He switched to Wellington Firebirds in July 2011 after twelves seasons with the Wizards. In October 2017, he scored 316 not out for Wellington against Auckland in the

2017–18 Plunket Shield season The 2017–18 Plunket Shield was the 89th season of the Plunket Shield, the domestic first-class cricket competition in New Zealand. The competition started on 23 October 2017 and finished on 5 April 2018. Canterbury were the defending champions ...

. This was the highest individual score for Wellington in the Plunket Shield. Papps also became the oldest New Zealand batsman to score a triple century in first-class cricket. Papps and

Luke Woodcock Luke James Woodcock (born 19 March 1982) is a former New Zealand cricketer who has played for New Zealand in limited over internationals. He also played for Wellington in New Zealand's domestic competitions. An all-rounder, he batted left handed ...

also made an opening partnership of 432 runs, the highest opening partnership and the highest partnership for any wicket in first-class cricket in New Zealand. He was the leading run-scorer in the 2017–18 Plunket Shield season, his last, with 814 runs in ten matches.

International career

After a successful career in the junior teams, Papps was selected for the one-day series against South Africa in 2003–04 to solve New Zealand's long-running search for a capable opening batsman to partner Stephen Fleming. He made 59 on his debut but struggled with injuries afterwards. During an

ODI ODI may refer to: * Object Design, Incorporated, a defunct database software company * One Day International, cricket match * Open Data Institute, a UK not-for-profit company promoting open data * Open Data-Link Interface, an implementation of th ...

against

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

in Auckland in early 2005, he was hit in the head twice by Brett Lee's bouncers. A subsequent scan ruled out brain injury but he never made another ODI appearance after the incident.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Papps, Michael 1979 births Living people New Zealand cricketers New Zealand Test cricketers New Zealand One Day International cricketers Canterbury cricketers Wellington cricketers South Island cricketers Wicket-keepers