Loveridge finds rich form — after cricket
Greg Loveridge has the unfortunate tag as the bowler who never bowled in his only test. But he gets to reflect on that from a rather fortunate position as a rich lister worth $90m.
Loveridge’s total on-field involvement in the five-day format lasted less than 30 minutes. At least he got to day three — which just happened to be his 21st birthday. Due to a wet start to the first ever test between the Black Caps and Zimbabwe, Loveridge, a right-arm leg-spinner, got his first and only taste of test cricket with the bat and New Zealand at 226 for eight.
“I walked out to bat, No 9, in my first test and batted for about 20 minutes. Strangely enough I wasn’t nervous,” he told the Herald in 2008. “Henry Olonga pitched one up and I hit him for four. The next one he dropped short and it hit me in the finger and that shattered my knuckle in three or four places.”
His hopes of continuing on in debut were literally shattered.
“I felt sick trying to hold the bat. I went off and had it X-rayed and they only looked at the top of the [index] finger and they said it was fine. I tried to bowl in the nets the next day and blacked out. It wasn’t pretty, I had surgery the next day. Mate, that was it.”
The match finished a draw with Zimbabwe going close to chasing down 257 for victory, finishing 208 for six at stumps on the final day.
A right-arm leggie, Loveridge had played four first-class games when was picked for his debut in Hamilton after, yes a finger injury denied him the chance a few seasons earlier.
“I played one first-class game for CD at the end of 1994-95 and had been in New Zealand squads. I’d bowled pretty well for New Zealand A against the Australian Academy. Out of the blue I got called up for the New Zealand training squad that toured India. I bowled well in the nets and got Martin Crowe out a couple of times. As a result of that I got put in the New Zealand team when Dipak Patel got injured. I went off to Darwin and broke my finger fielding and missed the tour.”
His cricket dream didn’t die with a broken knuckle in his test debut but