Christopher Stewart Martin (born 10 December 1974) is a former

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

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 str ...

er. A right-arm fast-medium bowler, Martin played provincial cricket for

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about ...

, having formerly played for the

Canterbury Wizards Canterbury is a first-class cricket team based in Canterbury, New Zealand. It is one of six teams that compete in senior New Zealand Cricket competitions and has been the second most successful domestic team in New Zealand history. They compet ...

. He also signed for the English county cricket side,

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Av ...

, for their 2008 domestic campaign and played one first-class match for

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

in 2010. In 1999 he played a season of club cricket in Scotland for Heriots FP Cricket Club. He retired from all cricket in late 2013.

International career

Martin is one of seven

Test cricketers to have taken 200 wickets. In 2011 he was recognised as New Zealand's premier cricketer, when he was awarded the inaugural Sir Richard Hadlee Medal, at the

cricket awards ceremony. Although predominantly a Test bowler, Martin moved back into contention for One Day Internationals after

International Cricket Council The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the world governing body of cricket. Headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, its members are 108 national associations, with 12 Full Members and 96 Associate Members. Founded in 1909 as the ' ...

rule changes permitted substitutions during games. Although the rule has since been revoked, Martin has remained on the fringes of the ODI squad and was called up to the New Zealand World Cup 2007 squad, as a replacement for the injured Daryl Tuffey.

Batting action

Martin was well known for being an extremely poor batsman, even by the low standards generally expected of tail-end batsman, and his batting gained him more publicity than his bowling. Martin has the rather dubious distinction of belonging to a select group of cricketers whose number of wickets taken exceeds runs scored; Bhagwat Chandrasekhar is the only other cricketer to meet this distinction (assuming a qualification of 30 Tests played), and only Holcombe “Hopper” Read – who played when pitches were uncovered – has played Test cricket and finished with a lower first-class batting average than Martin. Martin holds the record for the most

pair Pair or PAIR or Pairing may refer to: Government and politics * Pair (parliamentary convention), matching of members unable to attend, so as not to change the voting margin * ''Pair'', a member of the Prussian House of Lords * ''Pair'', the Frenc ...

s recorded in Test match history (7). He is also the only cricketer to be dismissed for a diamond duck (run out on 0 without facing a ball) twice in Test cricket – against England in 2004 and South Africa in 2013. On 9 January 2011, Martin notched up the milestone of 100 career Test match runs in the 1st Test against Pakistan at Seddon Park. He took his 500th wicket in first-class cricket, with the dismissal of

Tanvir Ahmed Tanvir Ahmed ( bal, تنويراحمد; born 20 December 1978) is a former Pakistani Test cricketer born in Kuwait. Ahmed is mainly a fast-bowler. He played for Pakistan in a first-class match against Worcestershire in the tour of England in ...

on the third day of the

first Test ''First Test'', is a fantasy novel by Tamora Pierce, the first book in the series ''Protector of the Small''. It details the first year of Keladry of Mindelan's training as a page of Tortall. Plot introduction ''Protector of the Small'' is set ...

against Pakistan in January 2011.

Retirement

On 3 July 2013 Martin announced his retirement from all forms of cricket. He bowed out as the third highest Test wicket-taker in New Zealand’s history.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Martin, Chris 1974 births Living people Auckland cricketers Canterbury cricketers Warwickshire cricketers New Zealand One Day International cricketers New Zealand Test cricketers New Zealand Twenty20 International cricketers New Zealand cricketers Essex cricketers South Island cricketers