Cricket: Sir Richard Hadlee recreates father's tour diary

Sir Richard Hadlee visits Whangarei with his new book "The Skippers Diary"

The iconic 49ers New Zealand cricket side has been immortalised in a new book produced by Sir Richard Hadlee - The Skipper's Diary.

Sir Richard's father Walter captained the side on a 37-match tour of Europe which encompassed an eight-month period, including a five-week boat trip both ways.

Sir Richard said replicating his father's diary was a labour of love.

"My siblings and I had heard a lot about dad's diary and he used to read excerpts for us when we were kids," he said.

"He kept it meticulously detailed. It was a hell of a mission to transcribe it all but we wanted to preserve a piece of history. This will have to go to a museum.

"He contributed so much to NZ cricket, not just as a captain but as a selector, manager, board of NZ Cricket, chairman of NZ Cricket, delegate to the ICC, president of NZ Cricket and life member. For 70 of his 90 years, he was involved in cricket."

No other team in New Zealand's cricketing history has ever been named after the year they had played in, highlighting how great the side was.

They lost just one match on tour, winning 13 and drawing the remainder including a 0-0 four test series with England.

Sir Richard said the tour coincided with an interesting time in world history.

"Europe was still rebuilding after the war so there were a lot of ruins and the players didn't know what they were going into because it was the "Age of Austerity. It's really a history book," he said.

"Previous tours had lost money and performed poorly so the 49ers were under extreme pressure to perform. If they hadn't performed, cricket here would have stalled because NZ Cricket had no money.

"The fact they produced £17,000 which is the equivalent of $1m in today's money, gave them something in the bank to secure future tours and enough to spread out to the country's association.

"They did a lot of great PR things off the field like distributing food parcels to those who needed them because of rationing. They also played a game in Germany against the British Combined Forces. They were basically peacekeepers there."

Not only was there great mateship off the field, the side gelled brilliantly on it. Eight batsman tallied over 1000 runs throughout the 37 games, with two breaking the 2000 barrier.

Five bowlers picked up 50 wickets with left-arm spinner Tom Burtt the chief destroyer with a remarkable 128 wickets.

Sir Richard said they played a phenomenal style of cricket.

"The brand they played was brilliant too. They got through 120 overs a day, which is 20 an hour, and nowadays teams struggle to get through 15 an hour for 90 a day even with the extra half an hour tagged on at the end of the day," he said.

"They also averaged 350-400 runs a day which was entertaining. Around 25-30,000 people would turn up for these games."

Hadlee said there were about 6000 copies, which aren't available in retail shops, with 119 limited edition leather bound books, symbolising Walter's highest first class score on tour.

The book is accompanied by a DVD documentary of the side.

*to purchase the book and DVD combination, head to www.theskippersdiary1949.com. The pair cost $79.95.