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Trish McKelvey is listed 139 times in the index of the New Zealand women’s cricket tome The Warm Sun On My Face, authored by Trevor Auger and Adrienne Simpson.
She wrote the foreword for the book and headlines two chapters addressing crucial events in the evolution of the sport.
McKelvey’s appointment as New Zealand captain in 1966 was considered a surprise at the time. The bold selection would yield fruit for almost two decades.
When her international career ended in 1982, McKelvey (White Fern 48) had skippered New Zealand in all 15 Test matches and 15 one-day internationals she played.
McKelvey remains the only New Zealand captain to have won a Test match, scored her country’s first Test century, and featured in the first three one-day World Cups, including the 1982 event hosted by New Zealand, a decade before the men’s equivalent.
In 1992, the New Zealand Women’s Cricket Council merged with New Zealand Cricket, the governing body of the men’s sport. New Zealand was the first country in the world to have one national body governing all cricket. The Women’s Council had run their own proceedings since 1934.
McKelvey’s playing CV, coupled with her formidable reputation in education, governance, selection, management, and administration (she was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2005), helped drive amalgamation.
Fittingly then, McKelvey was among the first XI individuals inducted into the New Zealand Cricket Hall of Fame before the second Test between the Black Caps and England at the Basin Reserve, Wellington. She joined Jackie Lord, Debbie Hockley, and Emily Drumm as the other women inducted.
“The last few days have been quite overwhelming with catch-ups and lunches; it’s a big honour, truly humbling,” McKelvey said.
“The ceremony happened at the Cricket Museum, which was the most appropriate place for it. We were each presented with our caps and had a biography read about our achievements. On Friday, we were summoned before the crowd at lunchtime, though it was so windy, you didn’t want to be out in the middle too long.”
The Basin Reserve was the site of McKelvey’s greatest moment. In February 1969, against England, she made an extraordinary 155 not out of a total of 302. It was the first century by a Kiwi woman in a Test match – the previous highest score, 84, was by Bev Brentnall against England in 1966. McKelvey’s score would remain the highest by a woman until Emily Drumm made 161 against Australia in 1995.
At the time, only three New Zealanders – Graham Dowling, Bert Sutcliffe, and Martin Donnelly – had played a higher innings for New Zealand. Of those three, only Graham Dowling’s 239 against India the previous summer had been scored at home, Lancaster Park. It would be 15 seasons before a New Zealander would score more runs than McKelvey in a Test match at the Basin Reserve – Jeremy Coney’s match-saving 174 against England in January 1984.
“I always tried to play correctly within the V and keep the scoreboard turning. I wasn’t a swashbuckling player,” McKelvey reflected.
“I shared good partnerships with Carol Oyler, Janice Stead, and Joce Burley. I hadn’t made many runs beforehand, so I was determined to succeed.”
McKelvey’s innings was only possible because of New Zealand’s competitiveness on the 1966 tour of England. Under her shrewd leadership, New Zealand wasn’t beaten in 21 matches and drew the three-Test series. England thus agreed to fund their travel costs for a return journey to New Zealand in 1968-69.
“The 66 tour of England was self-funded. We couldn’t afford to fly so we sailed on the Rangatira, a passenger and cargo ship which took six weeks to reach England,” McKelvey reflected.
“There were nine new players chosen in the team with a vision of the future. I’d captained my club and Wellington so I guess that’s why I was considered a skipper.
“To make the most of our time aboard the ship we put up nets on the top deck and delegated roles for each player. At these sessions, a different player would generally take the lead to talk about an aspect of the game, or the tour, based on their own knowledge or expertise. Hence Wendy Fitzwilliam spoke about health, hygiene and diet. Judi Doull about physical fitness. I shared ideas about batting and fielding.
“We stayed in hotels for the Test matches but were otherwise billeted to reduce costs. This sometimes made assembling for team meetings challenging but when we did meet we had to make the most of our time. The tour was a privilege and we needed to try our best in everything.
“England were going through a rebuild at the same time and that helped us, but we played some great cricket.”
Leg spinner Jackie Lord, who had to get permission from her parents to tour, ended up playing all three tests and took 24 wickets. Joce Burley claimed 45 wickets on the tour as a whole, including 13 in the Tests. Doull was prolific, scoring 730 runs.
Despite New Zealand’s success in England, domestic playing numbers plummeted 21 percent in 1967, stretching financial resources to the limit. But these roadblocks are par for the course in women’s cricket. Prue Hyman noted in Women Together: a History of Women’s Organisations in New Zealand in 1993:
“Women’s cricket suffered from the interconnected factors of low numbers, lack of sufficient international competition and success, little media attention, and a low financial base, which led in turn to a lack of resources for recruitment, coaching, and raising standards. Other issues affecting the sport included gender role ascription, women’s access to leisure time, and whether ‘men’s sports’ were seen as suitable for ‘feminine’ women. Inevitable conflicts and factions within the organisation also lost some people to the sport.”
Why did McKelvey persevere?
The middle of five children, McKelvey grew up in the Hutt Valley playing cricket with boys. She was good enough to make the First XI in her first year at Wellington Girls College, attributing her adept footwork at the crease to childhood ballet lessons.
An accomplished tennis and netball player, she decided to concentrate exclusively on cricket when she was cut from her school’s premier tennis team and endured three knee cartilage operations from netball.
At Teachers Training College, McKelvey joined the Kilbirnie Club, debuting for Wellington as a 19-year-old against the 1960-61 touring Australians.
“I was a student of the game. I read cricket books and spent hours at the Basin Reserve watching men’s matches, taking notes, and expanding my knowledge of tactics,” McKelvey said.
“I’ve always been a goal-setter and a competitor. While teaching is a difficult assignment, it’s worth it when you can witness the character and personality emerging from children. To see them leave school and take their place in life is truly a sufficient reward for the difficult hours spent with them.
“Sport is not dissimilar. Being part of a team that perseveres, grows, and succeeds together is very fulfilling.”
In 1972 New Zealand beat Australia in Melbourne. It was the first victory by any New Zealand side over Australia. When New Zealand bowled out for 89 in the first innings things looked grim for the tourists. The parents of Aussie fast bowler Tina Macpherson, who had travelled from Sydney to watch the game, even told McKelvey afterward they were returning home as there was no point staying.
Six wickets from Pat Carrick gave New Zealand a fighting chance when Australia were bowled out for 129 in reply.
New Zealand erased the deficit without the loss of a wicket in an opening partnership of 104 shared between Doull (56) and Janice Stead (95). McKelvey (26) and Lynda Prichard (66) carried on the momentum. Australia was set 295 to win and crumbled to be bowled out for 152. Carrick bagged another three wickets and Jill Saulbrey finished with figures of 4/50 from 38 overs.
Another Test win followed later that year in South Africa. In 1973 women played the first one-day World Cup. New Zealand hosted the World Cup in 1982 with McKelvey playing her last internationals aged 40. The final was broadcast on national TV.
Despite these successes, amalgamation with men to better pool resources and help address the financial challenges of the game remained off-limits until 1987 when the Wellington Women’s Cricket Association sat down with the Wellington Cricket Association with an integration plan that finally came together in 1988-89.
As principal of Wellington High School and with a position on the Hillary Commission sports funding agency, McKelvey had leverage when pushing for amalgamation of the national body. Other provinces soon adopted Wellington’s approach but a sticking point nationally was ensuring people with intimate knowledge of women’s cricket were part of a board structure. A special board similar to that managing junior cricket was introduced to manage this.
In 1992 New Zealand Cricket Inc was formed, combining the administration of men’s and women’s cricket. The national women’s team was named the White Ferns at the same time as the men became the Blackcaps.
“It was an inclusive process where a lot of people worked hard. We certainly had to make sure we crossed the Ts and dotted the Is,” McKevely reflected.
“At the Kilbirnie cricket club, we trained together for years before any of this happened. It was logical that both games merged but success depends on who’s running things.”
In 2000 the White Ferns beat Australia in Christchurch to win the one-day World Cup – something the men have not achieved.
By 2016 an independent report forced New Zealand Cricket to concede it had neglected women’s cricket. Carried out by Sarah Beaman, a former Auckland representative, it found that over 90 percent of cricket clubs had no female-only teams, and almost 60 percent of clubs did not offer cricket for girls at all.
New Zealand Cricket accepted they had allowed women’s cricket to be run by men, with neglect of the women’s game based on cost and a perceived lack of interest. The report made 17 recommendations, with its top priorities being to bring more women into governance positions and increase female presence in coaching and umpiring. Other major areas identified for reform were the levels of female participation at junior and youth levels and the lack of talent pathways at a domestic level.
In 2024 the White Ferns won the World Twenty20 championship. McKelvey was naturally delighted by that result though she’s disappointed New Zealand hasn’t played a Test match since 2004 but acknowledges that you can’t go from a “constant diet of short form cricket to test cricket”.
McKelvey has always been driven by a palpable sense of purpose. She wrote in The Warm Sun on My Face:
“In the 1930s and 40s, the early pioneers plotted the future of the game for many of us who followed…these admirable women are no longer with us, but all who played during these times had an incredible love for the game that has continued to underpin the sacrifices made to keep the game alive and growing. It is now up to those playing today to understand this legacy, preserve it and then hand it on to the next generation.”
Ahead of the first one-day international between the White Ferns and Australia, the members’ long room at the Basin Reserve was renamed the Trish McKelvey Lounge.
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