Jeremy Coney: 11 interesting facts about the former New Zealand captain

Jeremy Coney, born June 21, 1952, is one of New Zealand’s most successful Test captains. A steady all-rounder, Coney was a right-handed batsman and medium pacer. On his 63rd birthday, Shiamak Unwalla looks at 11 interesting facts about the man who is renowned for being a noted pundit in recent times.

1.  Musical family

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Coney hails for a musical family and said that he had a wonderful childhood. His father would play a violin while his mother would sing, and the children would dance to the music. This was doubtless a huge influence on young Jeremy, who took to music as he got older as well.

2.  The teacher

In the 1970s and 1980s, cricket was not considered a full-time profession in New Zealand, unless your name happened to be Richard Hadlee or Glenn Turner.  As such, Coney became a music teacher at Onslow College.

3.  Surprise debut

While he was going about his job as a music teacher, New Zealand were touring Australia in 1973-74. Just before the Test series began, Glenn Turner was injured. This led to a surprise call-up for Coney.  He made his debut in the second Test of the series, scoring a composed 40, though New Zealand weren’t able to win the match.

4.  A worthy barter

So unprepared was Coney for his Test debut that he landed up with an old, heavily plastered bat. He was given some money to buy a new bat for himself, which he promptly used to buy a guitar instead! He played music for his teammates, and they offered their gear for him to use.

5.  Humorous on the field

Coney was light-hearted by nature, and though he had to rein in his funny bone when he became captain, he was always humorous. On one occasion while after being hit for consecutive sixes by a particularly violent Kapil Dev, Coney ended up smiling and applauding Kapil, and waved the proverbial white flag — in this case his handkerchief — at the top of his mark.

There was large-heartedness to him as well. Years later, as captain he allowed substitute Bob Taylor to keep wickets after Bruce French’s injury. It is almost unheard of for a substitute to keep wickets, and Coney showed remarkable generosity in doing so.

6.  World Cup hero

Just about a week before his 31st birthday, New Zealand and England faced off for the second time in the 1983 World Cup. The Kiwis had won the first encounter between the two sides, but England were still the overwhelming favourites at Edgbaston.

Batting first, England set New Zealand 235, with David Gower scoring an unbeaten 92. In response, Bob Willis snared four wickets to keep New Zealand on the back foot for much of the chase. Coney stood tall amid the ruins, masterminding New Zealand to a two-wicket win off the penultimate ball of the match. He was named Man of the Match despite Richard Hadlee’s all-round show.

7.  Prickly relationship with the star

Hadlee is without a shred of doubt the greatest cricketer New Zealand have ever produced. However, he and Coney had a slightly antagonistic relationship. When Hadlee wrote a newspaper article against his teammates after a poor show, Coney and the rest of the team took offence and confronted Hadlee about it. They have since resolved their differences.

8.  A shrewd leader

Appointed Test captain toward the end of his career, Coney proved to be a shrewd and successful skipper. Under him, New Zealand beat Australia for the very first time, in 1985-86, winning the Australian leg of the tour 2-1, before beating them 1-0 back home in New Zealand. Following this, Coney led the Kiwis to a maiden series victory in England in 1986. This is when the Taylor-French episode mentioned above occurred.

9.  An entertaining pundit

Coney’s post-playing career was almost as — if not more — illustrious than his days as a player. His quirky personality and elaborate use of metaphors made him an instant hit as a commentator and pundit. His pitch reports in particular were often entertaining and far from the run-of-the-mill ones that happen more and more nowadays.

10.  Royal recognition

For his efforts as a player and captain, Coney was awarded a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1986.

11.  After-dinner speaker

Coney’s sharp wit and entertaining personality have made him quite a successful and popular after-dinner speaker.

(Shiamak Unwalla is a proud Whovian and all-round geek who also dabbles in cricket writing as a reporter with CricketCountry. His Twitter handle is @ShiamakUnwalla)

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