Rodney John McCurdy (born 30 December 1959) is a former

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officia ...

er who played for Australia,

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 ...

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

, Eastern Province,

Natal NATAL or Natal may refer to: Places * Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, a city in Brazil * Natal, South Africa (disambiguation), a region in South Africa ** Natalia Republic, a former country (1839–1843) ** Colony of Natal, a former British colony ( ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

and

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

. He now lives in

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

. A

fast bowler Fast bowling (also referred to as pace bowling) is one of two main approaches to bowling in the sport of cricket, the other being spin bowling. Practitioners of pace bowling are usually known as ''fast'' bowlers, ''quicks'', or ''pacemen''. ...

, he played in 11 One Day Internationals in the mid-1980s and later joined in the

South African rebel tours The South African rebel tours were a series of seven cricket tours staged between 1982 and 1990. They were known as the rebel tours because the international cricketing bodies banned South Africa from competitive international cricket throughou ...

in 1985.

Career

In 1979, McCurdy was in England when, while playing at club level for Pudsey St Lawrence in

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...

also appeared at the county level for

and

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...

. McCurdy represented Australia's U-19 team. He played for Victoria before moving to Tasmania, for whom he took 7–81 against the touring New Zealanders in 1980–81. He returned to Victoria for the 1981–82 season. During the 1984–85 summer, McCurdy signed to play in South Africa. McCurdy was selected in the original squad to tour England in 1985. However, his South African commitments meant he was unable to tour. McCurdy:

It always bugs me. I was picked on the Ashes tour. Would I have gone there? Yes, I was going there. We would have loved to have gone there, played in the Ashes, and come out to South Africa afterward. At least I would have had my opportunity. That's a disappointment for me.

McCurdy stayed in South Africa after the tour playing for Eastern Province and joined the rebel tours in South Africa in 1985–86 and 1986–87, defying the international sporting boycott 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 ...

state. He later ran a security business in Port Elizabeth, making alarms for homes and small businesses. He then moved to Johannesburg to work as operations manager of Tellytrack, the racing television station.

External links

*
Baggy green or livelihood? Rod McCurdy cash or country – ESPNcricinfo

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McCurdy, Rod 1959 births Living people Australia One Day International cricketers Border cricketers Derbyshire cricketers Eastern Province cricketers KwaZulu-Natal cricketers South Australia cricketers Tasmania cricketers Victoria cricketers Shropshire cricketers Australian cricketers Cricketers from Melbourne Australian emigrants to South Africa