John Edward Francis Beck (1 August 1934 – 24 April 2000) was a New Zealand

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 who played in eight Test matches between 1953 and 1956.

International career

An attacking left-handed batsman and fine fieldsman, John Beck was selected for the tour to South Africa in 1953–54 at the age of 19 and before he had played a first-class match: chosen "on the basis of his schoolboy form and his raw promise".''

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" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...

'' 2001, pp. 1575–76. In the Third Test at Cape Town he was run out for 99 after he and John Reid had put on 174 for the fifth wicket, including 165 in the two hours between lunch and tea on the second day. In New Zealand's first ever Test victory, against the West Indies at Auckland in 1955–56, he made 38 in the first innings, adding 104 for the fifth wicket with Reid, the highest partnership of the low-scoring match.

Domestic career

He played for Wellington with mixed success from 1954–55 to 1961–62. His highest score was 149 against Canterbury in 1955–56. Beck has been referred to as "one of the great mystery players of the age – he promised everything and achieved almost nothing."Brooke, p. 36. It was widely felt that he lacked the discipline to make the most of his talents.

References

Sources

* Brooke, R. "Book Reviews", ''The Cricket Statistician'', The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians: West Bridgford, Nottingham.

External links

* New Zealand Test cricketers New Zealand cricketers Wellington cricketers 1934 births 2000 deaths North Island cricketers {{NewZealand-cricket-bio-1930s-stub