Last Updated on 5 years by Charbel Coorey

Former New Zealand cricket captain John Reid lost his battle with colon cancer. The 1959 Wisden Cricketer of the Year was considered as one of the most critically approved all-rounders. As a youth player, Reid was involved in rugby and was a strong player for the game, but after a severe bout of rheumatic fever, he had to quit that sport.

Things didn’t stop him though, as he garnered immense success in cricket. According to ICC obituary, he scored 3428 runs in 58 Test matches with an average of 33.28, hitting 22 half-centuries and six centuries in a career that spanned over 16 years. His maiden Test century, a knock of 135, came against South Africa in Cape Town in 1954.

The board tweeted out the loss, “New Zealand great John R Reid has passed away in Auckland, aged 92. Reid played 58 Tests in a 16-year long international career, scoring 3428 runs and picking up 85 wickets. He was New Zealand’s oldest surviving Test player”, ICC wrote.

Along with being a terrific batsman, Reid was also a successful captain. He was the first cricketer to lead New Zealand to a Test victory against Windies by 190 runs in Auckland in 1956. He was also the captain when New Zealand defeated South Africa in 1962 to claim their first overseas Test win.

“I was the captain who won the first three Tests for New Zealand. All records are meant to be broken, but that one you can’t break. But when we won our first Test, I had a glass of champagne for the first time. It was special, first win in 27 years. I used to tell some terrible lies – how we are going to win this one and win that one, knowing very well that we wouldn’t. I loved the game. I loved the sportsmanship”, said Reid in a conversation with Cricket Monthly back in 2009.

Richard Hadlee recalled Reid as his inspiration and called him the game-changer for the nation. Hadlee, who is another surviving all-rounder from New Zealand team told Newshub, “You talk about John Reid as the all-rounder, the game-changer, an attacking and aggressive player and they’re the type of qualities I think that inspired my type of play. You look at his first-class record particularly, he scored over 16,000 runs at a good average in the 40s… he got 466 first-class wickets with a best bowling performance of 7/20. We have lost an iconic player. A legendary player. He led by example”.

Written by Anjali Jha. Follow Anjali on Twitter today.