Cricket: Rutherford has plenty to contribute

JOHANNESBURG - It seemed a touch ironic that at the precise moment that New Zealand were arriving at the gates of the Wanderers Stadium for the third cricket test against South Africa, one of their best batsmen was across the road at the famous ground's clubhouse, making cracks about the size of his nose.

Former New Zealand captain Ken Rutherford, swept from power five years ago by coach Glenn Turner's new broom, was speaking at the club's traditional pre-test breakfast, not long before the tourists' top-order batting was again demolished by the South African pace attack.

At the age of 35, Rutherford has decided to retire this year.

But he is still considered one of the Republic's best batsmen, a point he underlined last season when he played a major hand in Gauteng's first championship win in 12 years, scoring 818 runs at an average of 51.12, including three centuries and a top score of 195 not out, against Natal.

In the past five summers of his self-imposed exile from New Zealand, Rutherford played in 42 Currie Cup and Supersport Series matches, scoring 2979 runs at 44.46, and striking 11 centuries and 13 half-centuries.

In his last three seasons he averaged 54.

If he does not play again, the record books will show the former Otago stalwart managed 35 first-class centuries in a career which spanned 17 seasons and included 56 tests, making him comfortably New Zealand's most successful active batsmen at the end of last season.

To put his 35 hundreds in perspective, it might be worth noting that of the top order in South Africa, Nathan Astle and Stephen Fleming have scored 12 first-class centuries, Mark Richardson 11, Craig McMillan 9 and Mathew Sinclair 8.

Only five New Zealanders - Turner, Martin Crowe, John Wright, Bert Sutcliffe and John R. Reid - have scored more.

Even Rutherford's test career, which was badly marred by his baptism of fire during the 1985 tour of the West Indies, stacks up favourably in terms of the three centuries he scored (one more than Fleming and Sinclair and on a par with McMillan), although critics will point to his average of 27.08 as reason enough for his omission.

That would ignore, however, the fact that Rutherford was chosen as a 19-year-old to open against the likes of Malcom Marshall, Michael Holding and Joel Garner; that his first 10 tests comprised six matches against the West Indies, three against Australia and one against England, and that his average steadily improved through the second half of his career.

It was hard not to think of the colourful right-hander - who has effectively been ignored by New Zealand Cricket since being unceremoniously dumped in 1995 - as the South Africa pace battery once again destroyed the tourists' top order at the Wanderers.

It was only a gutsy rearguard from rookie Hamish Marshall which allowed the New Zealand first innings total to reach the 200 mark.

You get the feeling that if the South Africans did not have to contend with Johannesburg's fickle weather - which has washed out the first and third days' play - they would be closing in on a clean sweep in the three-match series.

Rutherford was watching New Zealand's limp batting effort from his office at the Wanderers, where he is now employed as coaching director for Gauteng.

It might be too late to consider him again as a player. But with the World Cup being held in South Africa in 2003, it seems inconceivable that NZC will not seek his assistance on matters of local knowledge. This would seem to be particularly pertinent since coach David Trist, who used to be at Eastern Province, has confirmed his intention of standing down.

As Rutherford himself would admit, he has a nose for these things.

Rain washed out the morning session on the fourth day, as the tour squelched to its unsatisfactory conclusion.