Western Australia Star John Rutherford Dies Aged 92

John Rutherford, the first Western Australian-based player to be chosen for Test cricket, has died at 92 years old.

Rutherford is a portion of Australia’s one-Test club having played his first Test match on the 1956 visit through India, that was held coming back from the Ashes series that year.

The right-handed opener made 30 and took a wicket in the subsequent innings, excusing Vijay Manjrekar at the Brabourne Stadium in the drawn match.

John Rutherford Officially First Ever From WA To Play For Australia

Rutherford, who hailed from Bruce Rock, a little country town 243km east of Perth, played 67 first-class games between 1952-53 and 1960-61 scoring 3367 runs at an average of 31.76 with six centuries and 15 half-hundreds of years.

WA had no official Test delegates preceding Rutherford’s debut, even though WA-conceived Ernie Bromley played two Tests for Australia in 1933-34 after moving from WA to play for Victoria. WA started playing first-class cricket in 1892-93 however were not officially welcomed into the Sheffield Shield contest until 1947-48.

In a meeting with ESPNcricinfo in 2015, Rutherford framed exhaustively the boundaries he looked at as a WA-based player attempting to acquire selection into Australia’s Test group in front of the 1956 visit through England, Pakistan, and India.

Rutherford’s career finished unexpectedly at 31 when he experienced a stroke on the field while captaining WA in a tour match against West Indies in 1960.

WA Cricket CEO Honors John Rutherford

Western Australia Cricket CEO Christina Matthews honored Rutherford after his passing. “John Rutherford played an enormous role in placing WA Cricket on the map, at a time when the national side was dominated by players from the eastern states,” Matthews said.

“He was a talkative and charismatic personality, and his passion for cricket was infectious.

“On behalf of everyone at WA Cricket and the State’s cricketing community, we send our deepest condolences to the Rutherford family.”

While Rutherford battled for potential open doors at the Test level, he made way for an age of WA Test greats that followed with Graham McKenzie, Dennis Lillee and Rod Marsh becoming easily recognized names over the accompanying twenty years.

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