Kenneth Scott McEwan (born 16 July 1952 at

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population of the Bedford built-up area (including Biddenham and Kempston) was 106,940, making it the second-largest settlement in Bedfordshire, behind Luton, whilst ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

), is a former

cricketer 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 ...

who played principally for Eastern Province and

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 G ...

. A right-handed middle-order batsman, McEwan's cricket career coincided almost exactly with the period in which

was banished from international cricket because of the

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

policies of its government. McEwan first played for Eastern Province at the age of 20, and was recommended to

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

by the future

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

captain

Tony Greig Anthony William Greig (6 October 194629 December 2012) was a South African-born Test cricket captain turned commentator. Greig qualified to play for the England cricket team by virtue of his Scottish parentage. He was a tall () all-rounder w ...

. But Sussex had its quota of overseas players and in 1974 McEwan went on to the staff at Essex, having played just two seasons in South African cricket and without a first-class century to his name.Cricketer of the Year 1978: Ken McEwan
/ref> It proved a good signing: McEwan scored just over 1,000 runs in his first season at an average of 30 runs per innings, and for the next 11 seasons comfortably exceeded those figures in every year. In 1977, he scored centuries in four consecutive first-class innings and the following year he was named as one of the five

Wisden Cricketers of the Year The ''Wisden'' Cricketers of the Year are cricketers selected for the honour by the annual publication ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', based primarily on their "influence on the previous English season". The award began in 1889 with the naming ...

in the 1978 edition of the almanack. His best season was 1983 when, with 2,051 runs at an average of 68.36, he headed the national runs tally in the season. With McEwan as its leading batsman, Essex achieved the first successes in its history, winning the

County Championship The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It bec ...

in 1979, 1983 and 1984, the Sunday League in 1981, 1984 and 1985, the

Benson & Hedges Cup The Benson & Hedges Cup was a one-day cricket competition for first-class counties in England and Wales that was held from 1972 to 2002, one of cricket's longest sponsorship deals. It was the third major one-day competition established in Englan ...

in 1979 and the

NatWest Trophy The Friends Provident Trophy was a one-day cricket competition in the United Kingdom. It was one of the four tournaments in which the eighteen first-class cricket, first-class counties competed each season. They were joined by teams from Scott ...

in 1985. Though unable to play

Test cricket Test cricket is a form of first-class cricket played at international level between teams representing full member countries of the International Cricket Council (ICC). A match consists of four innings (two per team) and is scheduled to last fo ...

, McEwan returned to South Africa most winters to play for Eastern Province, but from 1979 he had two seasons in Australia with

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. He retired from Essex after the 1985 season, but continued to play five more seasons for Eastern Province, during which the club won its first two

Currie Cup The Currie Cup is South Africa's premier domestic rugby union competition, played each winter and spring (June to October), featuring teams representing either entire provinces or substantial regions within provinces. Although it is the premier ...

s (the latter shared with Western Province). McEwan finished his career in 1991–92 with one season for

Border Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders c ...

. In all cricket, McEwan scored 26,628 runs at an average of more than 41 runs per innings. His career total of 74 centuries is second only to

John Langridge John George Langridge MBE (10 February 1910 – 27 June 1999) was a cricketer who played for Sussex. His obituary in ''Wisden'' called him "one of the best English cricketers of the 20th century never to play a Test match". Born into a cricketi ...

's 76 among players who never played Test cricket. He was also an occasional wicket-keeper and a fine close fielder.

Notable innings

Whilst on Sussex's books, in 1972 McEwan played Worthing Evening Cricket League for Greystoke and in scoring 126* against Lyles, an innings which included seven 6s and thirteen 4s, he secured not only the first century in Division 1 but also the highest league score which still stood as at 1988. Worthing Cricket Association: A History of 37 Seasons from 1952 to 1988 by Laurie Claydon (Competitions Secretary) He also turned out that year for Worthing in the Sussex Invitation Cricket League. While at Eastern Province, in the first innings of the Currie Cup final of the 1988/89 season against Transvaal, McEwan made 191 in a 337-run third wicket partnership with

Philip Amm Philip Geoffrey Amm (2 April 1964 – 10 September 2015) was a South African cricketer who played first-class cricket for Border and Eastern Province in South Africa from 1982 to 1998. He also played 138 List A List A cricket is a classifi ...

(214) to set up Eastern Province's historic victory by an innings and 103 runs: it was Eastern Province's first Currie Cup, and the first time since 1890/91 that any team other than Transvaal, Natal or Western Province had won the cup.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:McEwan, Ken 1952 births Living people South African cricketers South African people of British descent Essex cricketers Eastern Province cricketers Border cricketers Western Australia cricketers White South African people Wisden Cricketers of the Year T. N. Pearce's XI cricketers Alumni of Queen's College Boys' High School