John Henry Bickford Waite (19 January 1930 – 22 June 2011) was a South African

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 striki ...

er who played in fifty

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from 1951 to 1965. He was born in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

Transvaal Transvaal is a historical geographic term associated with land north of (''i.e.'', beyond) the Vaal River in South Africa. A number of states and administrative divisions have carried the name Transvaal. * South African Republic (1856–1902; af, ...

, and educated at Hilton College and

Rhodes University Rhodes University is a public university, public research university located in Makhanda, Eastern Cape, Makhanda (Grahamstown) in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is one of four universities in the province. Established in 1904, ...

. He was the first South African to play 50 Tests for his country and is generally acknowledged to be one of South Africa's finest wicket keepers. His total of 141 dismissals in

Test matches Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (association football) ...

stood as a record for his country until it was overtaken by Dave Richardson. In 1953–54 he set a new Test best of 23 dismissals in a single series, against New Zealand and broke his own record in 1961–62, with 26, also against New Zealand. He was also a solid batsman, scoring 76 on debut against England at

Trent Bridge Trent Bridge Cricket Ground is a cricket ground mostly used for Test, One-Day International and county cricket located in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England, just across the River Trent from the city of Nottingham. Trent Bridge is also t ...

, and averaging over 30 in Tests with four Test centuries. In addition to his Test career, he played first class cricket for Eastern Province and

, making his debut in 1948 and retiring in 1966. His highest first class score was 219 for Eastern Province against

Griqualand West Griqualand West is an area of central South Africa with an area of 40,000 km2 that now forms part of the Northern Cape Province. It was inhabited by the Griqua people – a semi-nomadic, Afrikaans-speaking nation of mixed-race origin, wh ...

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* 1930 births 2011 deaths Eastern Province cricketers Gauteng cricketers South African Universities cricketers South Africa Test cricketers South African cricketers Alumni of Hilton College (South Africa) Cricketers from Johannesburg Wicket-keepers {{SouthAfrica-cricket-bio-1930s-stub