Rodney John McCurdy (born 30 December 1959) is a former

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 ...

er who played for

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 ...

Border Borders are generally defined as geography, geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by polity, political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other administrative divisio ...

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

, Eastern Province,

Natal NATAL or Natal may refer to: Places * Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, a city in Brazil * Natal, South Africa (disambiguation), a region in South Africa ** Natalia Republic, a former country (1839–1843) ** Colony of Natal, a former British colony ( ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

and Victoria. He now lives in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. A

fast bowler Fast bowling (also referred to as pace bowling) is a type of bowling in cricket, in which the ball is delivered at high speed. The fastest bowlers bowl the ball at over . Practitioners of fast bowling are known as fast bowlers or quicks. Also ...

, he played in 11

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 in the mid-1980s and later joined in the

South African rebel tours The South African rebel tours were a series of seven cricket tours staged between 1982 and 1990. They were known as the rebel tours because the international cricketing bodies banned South Africa from competitive international cricket througho ...

in 1985.

Career

In 1979, McCurdy was in England when, while playing at club level for Pudsey St Lawrence in

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

also appeared at the county level for

and

Shropshire Shropshire (; abbreviated SalopAlso used officially as the name of the county from 1974–1980. The demonym for inhabitants of the county "Salopian" derives from this name.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West M ...

. McCurdy represented Australia's U-19 team. He played for Victoria before moving to Tasmania, for whom he took 7–81 against the touring New Zealanders in 1980–81. He returned to Victoria for the 1981–82 season. During the 1984–85 summer, McCurdy signed to play in South Africa. McCurdy was selected in the original squad to tour England in 1985. However, his South African commitments meant he was unable to tour. McCurdy:

It always bugs me. I was picked on the Ashes tour. Would I have gone there? Yes, I was going there. We would have loved to have gone there, played in the Ashes, and come out to South Africa afterward. At least I would have had my opportunity. That's a disappointment for me.

McCurdy stayed in South Africa after the tour playing for Eastern Province and joined the rebel tours in South Africa in 1985–86 and 1986–87, defying the international sporting boycott of the

apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

state. He later ran a security business in

Port Elizabeth Gqeberha ( , ), formerly named Port Elizabeth, and colloquially referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipal ...

, making alarms for homes and small businesses. He then moved to Johannesburg to work as operations manager of

Tellytrack SuperSport is a South African-based group of television channels carried on the DStv & Canal+ Afrique, Canal+ satellite platforms alongside the GOtv terrestrial platform and Showmax Pro for live sports programming. It provides sports content i ...

, the racing television station.

External links

*
Baggy green or livelihood? Rod McCurdy cash or country – ESPNcricinfo

References

1959 births Living people Australia One Day International cricketers Border cricketers Derbyshire cricketers Australian expatriate cricketers in England Eastern Province cricketers KwaZulu-Natal cricketers South Australia cricketers Tasmania cricketers Victoria cricketers Shropshire cricketers Australian cricketers Cricketers from Melbourne Australian emigrants to South Africa 20th-century Australian sportsmen {{Australia-cricket-bio-stub