The Lancastrian Donald James ‘Don’ Pringle, born May 1, 1932, made his international debut at 43. He played 2 ODIs for East Africa in the inaugural World Cup. His son Derek went on to have a reasonable international career. Abhishek Mukherjee looks back at a landscape designer who became the first ODI player to pass away.
Born in Prestwich, Manchester, Don Pringle could easily have spent his career sharing new ball or bowling first-change for Lancashire at Old Trafford or Liverpool or Blackpool or Southport. Instead, he moved to Kenya in 1958 (according to some sources, 1956), settling down as a landscape designer.
Pringle studied at Bury and played cricket for Prestwich, but not much else is known of his early cricket days barring the fact that he did not play a First-Class match. Of course, he went on to become a regular for Nairobi Civil Service, Parklands, Nairobi Club, and Limuru, and later, East Africa.
A new-ball bowler, Pringle was also a gutsy batsman down the order. His teammate Mike Brown (later Chairman of Kenya Cricket Association) wrote: “Don was dearly loved by everybody who had cricket at heart. I played with him for 18 years and I think it is no exaggeration to say he was the finest pace bowler Kenya ever produced.”
Competitive cricket of the highest order was sporadic in those days in Kenya. His career statistics across 16 recorded matches (including his 2 ODIs) read 346 runs at 19.22 and 41 wickets at 31.97.
Pringle’s first recorded match against Uganda was a thriller: Kenya batted first, being reduced to 70 for 7 before Bras D’Cunha (38) and Pringle (45) added 81. Pringle scored another 25 in the second innings as Kenya scraped home by a 21-run margin after Uganda’s last pair added 63.
Rise of the club cricketer
When Mike Smith’s MCC toured East Africa in 1963-64, Pringle, playing for Kenya, dismissed Willie Watson in the first innings and Colin Milburn in the second. A week later, for Mombasa Sports Club Invitation XI, he got Micky Stewart and Milburn.
Worcestershire’s ambitious world tour of 1964-65 (they won the Championship in both seasons) included Kenya, Rhodesia, India, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, and USA (both Hawaii and mainland).
The Kenya match saw Pringle scale new heights, with match figures of 5 for 169: he got Don Kenyon, Martin Horton (twice), Doug Slade, and the big wicket, that of Tom Graveney.
The Indians, in 1967, visited East Africa on their way back from the disastrous England tour. Pringle put up a stellar show. Coming out at 87 for 7, Pringle (52 not out) helped Jawahir Shah (96) thwart Bishan Bedi and EAS Prasanna, taking the score to 241.
The Indians batted only once, piling up 424 for 5, but Pringle took 4 for 99. In a side filled with club cricketers, Pringle proved his worth yet again.
When Warwickshire toured, Pringle claimed 3 for 96 and 2 for 54. Unfortunately, at 35, time was running out for him. Then came his biggest moment, against Stewart’s International XI.
International success
The tourists were by no means an ordinary side. Pringle took new ball when East Africa bowled, and took 5 for 97, including Billy Ibadulla, Stewart, and Keith Fletcher, bowling them out for 306. Unfortunately, the batsmen did not rise to the occasion, and conceded a 75-run lead.
But Pringle had more to offer. This time he did even better: in a quick early burst he reduced the tourists to 28 for 5; four of the men — Ibadulla, Dennis Amiss, Stewart, and Tony Greig —fell to Pringle. Unfortunately, there was little back-up, and Fletcher and Jack Birkenshaw took International XI to a relatively safe position.
Pringle came back to remove Roger Tolchard, but the damage had been done. He finished with 5 for 67, Zulfiqar Ali finished off the tail, but East Africa had to chase down 263 or bat out time.
They were on track at 87 for 1, but led by the wiles of Derek Underwood, the tourists bounced back. Pringle joined Shashikant Patel at 156 for 8 with still time to play. Pringle was not the batsman of yesteryear, but he hung around grimly, adding 29 for the ninth wicket. Patel eventually saved the match with Pranlal Divecha.
He led Kenya against Uganda later that year. Uganda put up 436, and Pringle declared behind, on 291 for 3 before taking 4 for 55 to rout Uganda for 159. Unfortunately, it almost backfired: chasing 304, Kenya were reduced to 195 for 8; Pringle then had to save the match with Mehmood Quaraishy.
World Cup
It had been almost two years since the first Women’s World Cup in 1973. The organisers, realising that the six Test teams (South Africa were out of action) would probably not be enough, invited Sri Lanka and East Africa, a team consisting of Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, and Tanzania.
Note: East Africa also played the first three editions of the ICC Trophy, in 1979, 1982, and 1986. By 1982, however, Kenya had formed its separate team, so East Africa became a three-nation side. They later became East and Central Africa following the addition of Malawi, and played ICC Trophy in 1990, 1994, 1997, and 2001.
Prudential Assurance sponsored the tournament, offering £100,000; just like the other seven sides (barring hosts England), East Africa were assured 7.5 per cent of the profits.
After two minor matches against National Cricket Association and Taunton, East Africa played their first match against Somerset, losing by a massive 168-run margin in a 60-over match. A 43-year old Pringle, despite not taking a wicket, returned figures of 12-4-17-0.
He was rested for the Wales match, but came back against Glamorgan. Once again he was excellent, with 7-2-12-1, clean bowling Len Hill for a duck. Glamorgan were restricted to a mere 153.
Despite being reduced to 15 for 3, captain Harilal Shah, Frasat Ali, and Jawahir Shah guided East Africa to a 3-wicket win with 11 balls to spare.
Unfortunately, an injured Pringle missed East Africa’s first match, against New Zealand. Glenn Turner batted through the 60 overs with 171 not out, and New Zealand won by 181 runs.
He returned for the India match, where Madan Lal (3 for 15) and Bishan Bedi (12-8-6-1) made sure East Africa were restricted to 120. Sunil Gavaskar and Farokh Engineer then guided India to a 10-wicket win.
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It was also India’s first ODI win. Opening bowling, Pringle sent down 3 overs for 14.
The last match against England, as predicted, was a mismatch. Barry Wood and Amiss added 158 for the opening stand before Frank Hayes smashed a typically destructive fifty. With 12-0-41-0, Pringle was East Africa’s most economic bowler in a total of 290 for 5.
In response, the tourists were no match for John Snow, who wrecked the tourists with 4 for 11. East Africa were bowled out for 94. Pringle followed his 3-ball 2 against India with a 12-ball 3.
On their way back, East Africa played another match, against Denmark, where Henrik Mortensen ran through them with match figures of 9 for 69. Denmark won by 3 wickets. Pringle sent down a mere 12 overs in the match.
Personal life, and Derek’s tale
Don Pringle had moved to Nairobi Parks Department, and was successful in his profession. As the Nairobi Standard wrote in his obituary, “Happily, in Nairobi and elsewhere, there are colourful memorials to his hard work and expertise.” Most significantly, he helped lay the grass in Nairobi Club Ground, the first ground in the country with a turf ground.
He married Dora, who was earlier on the Herbarium education at Barry. They had a son, Derek, and a daughter, Janet.
Derek was born in Nairobi, months after the Pringles had moved to the country. Derek remains one of three Kenya-born Test cricketers. Interestingly, the three (Qasim Umar and Dipak Patel were the others) were born within a 20-month span.
Despite his enormous talent and success for Essex, Derek (nicknamed ‘Pring the Swing’ for his prodigious swing bowling) could never make it big at the highest level. In 1987, Don and Derek Pringle became the first father-son pair to play World Cup cricket.
The unfortunate demise
Just over three months after the Denmark match, Pringle was playing Impala in a club match at Limuru. He took 6 for 16 to help his side to an easy win. On his way back to Nairobi, unfortunately, his car met with an accident. He did not survive, and passed away at a mere 43.
Don Pringle was the first ODI cricketer to pass away. Just for the records, James Southerton and Runako Morton hold the rather morbid ‘feat’ for Tests and T20Is respectively.
(Abhishek Mukherjee is the Chief Editor at CricketCountry and CricLife. He blogs here and can be followed on Twitter here.)
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