Robert Wickham Anderson (2 October 1948 – 1 June 2025) was a New Zealand

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 who played nine

Test matches Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Indoor cricket, Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (associa ...

and two

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 for the

New Zealand national cricket team The New Zealand national cricket team represents New Zealand in men's international cricket. Nicknamed the Black Caps (), they played their first Test cricket, Test in 1930 against England cricket team, England in Christchurch, becoming the f ...

between 1976 and 1978. Anderson was born in

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

in 1948.Robert Anderson

Cricinfo ESPNcricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a Sports journalism, sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including Liveblogging, liveblogs and sco ...

. Retrieved 2021-12-31.

Domestic career

Anderson played mainly as a top-order batsman. He began his

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 ...

career in 1967–68 for

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the county of Kent, England; it was a county borough until 1974. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. The city has a mild oceanic climat ...

, playing in three

Plunket Shield New Zealand has had a domestic first-class cricket championship since the 1906–07 season. Since the 2009–10 season it has been known by its original name of the Plunket Shield. History The Plunket Shield competition was instigated in Octo ...

matches for the side during the season.Robert Anderson
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2021-12-31. He played for Northern Districts during the 1969–1970 season, including against the touring Australian side before moving to

Otago Otago (, ; ) is a regions of New Zealand, region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island and administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local go ...

ahead of the 1970–71 season. Anderson played in 35 first-class and 9

List A List A cricket is a classification of the Limited overs cricket, limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competit ...

matches for Otago and was selected for New Zealand whilst at the side. He moved to play for

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 ...

in 1977, playing a further 30 first-class and 9 List A matches for the side before retiring after the 1981–82 season. His highest score was 155 for the New Zealand touring team against Scotland in 1978. Anderson also played

Hawke Cup The Hawke Cup is a non-first-class cricket competition for New Zealand's district associations. Apart from 1910–11, 1912–13 and 2000–01 the competition has always been on a challenge basis. To win the Hawke Cup, the challengers must beat ...

cricket for Southland, Northland and Manawatu between 1970 and 1980. When Southland successfully defended the title against four challenges in 1973–74 he scored 561 runs at an

average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...

of 93.50 with three centuries. In the 16 Hawke Cup challenge matches he played, he scored 1,773 runs at an average of 70.92. His 255 against Ashburton County in February 1977 is still the highest score for Southland. He was named in the Hawke Cup Team of the Century in 2011.Martin, Wayne (2 November 2017
Nelson hold an esteemed place in annals of Hawke Cup cricket history
Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 2017-03-29.

International career

Anderson toured England with New Zealand in 1973 but did not play in any of the international matches on the tour. He made his Test match debut against

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

on New Zealand's 1976–77 tour, playing in all three Test matches as well as the sole One Day International (ODI) on the tour. He scored 92 in the opening match, scoring 183 for the fifth wicket in 155 minutes with Mark Burgess,First Test match
Pakistan v New Zealand, ''

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "Bible of cricket" (or variations thereof) has been applied to ''Wi ...

'', 1978. Retrieved 2021-12-31. but did not retain his place for the tour of India which followed. Anderson played in all three home Tests against England in 1977–78. In the First Test, New Zealand's first-ever Test victory over England, he scored 28 and 26 (New Zealand's top score in the second innings) in the low-scoring match. He also played in all three Tests on New Zealand's tour to England in 1978 as well as one of the two ODIs on the tour, but scored only 26 Test runs in six innings; ''

Wisden ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "Bible of cricket" (or variations thereof) has been applied to ''Wi ...

'' called his performance one of the "biggest disappointments".

Family

Anderson's father,

Mac Anderson William McDougall "Mac" Anderson (8 October 1919 – 21 December 1979) was a New Zealand cricketer who played in one Test match in 1946. His son Robert Anderson played international cricket for New Zealand in the 1970s. Cricket career Anderso ...

, played one Test match for New Zealand in 1946. Robert's son Tim played for Central Districts as a leg-spinner from 1997–98 to 2002–03. In 2008 Robert and Tim started a mortgage-broking company. Anderson died in

on 1 June 2025, aged 76.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, Robert 1948 births 2025 deaths New Zealand cricketers New Zealand Test cricketers New Zealand One Day International cricketers Canterbury cricketers Central Districts cricketers Northern Districts cricketers Otago cricketers Southland cricketers