NZ’s ODI captain Michael has made his famous Bracewell family proud with a series win on Indian soil, an achievement which puts him on a stage that includes the likes of Clive Lloyd, Viv Richards, and Imran Khan
Michael Bracewell, who led New Zealand to their maiden ODI series win in India. PIC/GETTY IMAGES
Kiwis have claws’ is a headline I remember reading in Sportsweek’s World of Cricket; one of my favourite magazines in my youth. The headline was used for a 1984 piece by well-known statistician BB Mama about how New Zealand are capable of troubling opposition teams in Test cricket. They thwarted England in the Lord’s Test of 1973, when skipper Bevan Congdon, Mark Burgess and Vic Pollard got centuries in one innings. Nine months later, they beat Australia at Christchurch to square the series. They denied India a series win in 1975-76 and in 1979-80, they beat the West Indies 1-0 before Greg Chappell’s Australians lost to them at Auckland in 1981-82 for another Trans-Tasman squared series in New Zealand.
A year before Mama’s piece, they won their first Test on English soil at Leeds in 1983. That ‘Kiwis have claws’ headline holds true today when the limited overs world of Indian cricket is reeling under India’s maiden ODI series loss to New Zealand at home. Quite clearly, India were outwitted by a spirited side that was not the best ODI crew they would normally put out on the field.
Kane Williamson, Mitchell Santner, Rachin Ravindra… have made New Zealand a formidable force but India didn’t have to cope with them in the ODI series which it lost at Indore on Sunday.
In the furore over a rare home loss, the New Zealanders have not been given enough credit for their achievement. After their 3-0 Test series win in India a little more than a year ago and the recent ODI series win, Indian cricket fans now hope that they don’t walk away with the T20 series honours.
Uncle: Brendon Bracewell, Uncle: John Bracewell and Cousin: Doug Bracewell
New Zealand joined the West Indies (1983-84, 1987-88 and 2002-03), Australia (1984-85, 2000-01, 2007-08, 2009-10, 2018-19, 2022-23), England (1984-85), Pakistan (1986-87, 2004-05, 2012-13), and South Africa (2015-16) in the list of teams that can boast of ODI series wins in India.
The under-strength squad was led by Michael Bracewell. He must have been pleased with his unbeaten 28 in the series-winning Indore game where he smashed three sixes and a four as his side piled up an imposing 337-8 in 50 overs. By the end of the game, Michael took his place with the likes of Clive Lloyd and Viv Richards, Kim Hughes, David Gower, Imran Khan, Steve Waugh, Carl Hooper, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Ricky Ponting, Misbah-ul-Haq, AB de Villiers, Aaron Finch, and Steve Smith in a small hall of skippers who have dared to beat India at home.
Bracewell is a famous surname in world cricket and part of a famous New Zealand cricketing family just like the Hadlees, Howarths, Crowes, McCullums etc.
It was his uncle John who, in 1988, led New Zealand to victory in the second Test of the 1988-89 series in Mumbai following the opening Test loss at Bangalore, where John Wright’s team was hit by a virus.
Bracewell’s match haul of eight wickets included 6-51 in the second innings. He thus spoilt skipper Dilip Vengsarkar’s 100th Test. John also played a role in ‘preventing’ Richard Hadlee from taking his tally to 300 wickets at the end of the victorious 1985-86 Test series in Australia. Hadlee, who claimed 11 wickets in the match, was primed to become the sixth bowler to claim 300 wickets, but John claimed the last wicket of the series (Craig McDermott) and Hadlee had to wait for more than two months to get his landmark wicket.
John, who made his Test debut against Australia in 1980-81, was a gravedigger by profession. He went on to claim 102 wickets in 41 Tests and also an outspoken coach of New Zealand. “A lot of these guys are in positions where they see this as just a wonderful adventure. We need to step up and see ourselves as world class in order to become world class,” he said during New Zealand’s 2008-09 series in Australia.
Son of Mark, a former domestic cricketer, Michael, the 34-year-old ODI skipper, has more cricket in his blood. Brendon, another uncle of his, was a pace bowler who made his Test debut in the 1978 series in England as a 19-year-old tearaway. Injuries restricted his Test career to just six Tests. Brendon grew up in a family of six brothers who all wanted to be fast bowlers, but John discovered he couldn’t continue his fast bowling dreams due to a back injury and took to spin bowling.
In an interview to Sportsworld magazine in 1988, John said he was used as a spinner only after his college cricket days. Brendon too had back issues.
Dennis Lillee could conquer and forge on despite stress fractures in the back, but Brendon unfortunately couldn’t. However, he didn’t lose his spirit. During the home series against India in 2002-03, he was seen hunting for fast bowlers in an initiative called Princes of Pace.
Douglas, another uncle of Michael’s, played first-class cricket while cousin Doug, who Michael played U-19 cricket with, retired from all forms of the game at the end of last year. A rib injury caused the seam bowling all-rounder, who played 28 Tests, 21 ODIs and 20 T20Is, to put a full stop to his career.
Batting all-rounder Michael is part of the Santner-led T20 squad for the ongoing series that started in Nagpur on Wednesday, but a calf strain has thrown a spanner in his works. His family would be hoping that another Bracewell is not bogged down by injuries. For, Michael will want to have a major say in New Zealand’s fortunes and build on their reputation of putting the Gautam Gambhir-coached Indian cricket in disarray.
mid-day’s Deputy Editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance.
He tweets @ClaytonMurzello. Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com
The views expressed in this column are the individual’s and don’t represent those of the paper.
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