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28 years later: Ex-Aussie quick’s touching moment with cricketing legend
SEN • November 30th, 2025 2:00 pm
The 1987 Boxing Day Test is one that went down in history.
By the final innings, Australia needed 247 to win against New Zealand, and with 15 minutes left to play, they found themselves 9/227.
With their chances of winning dwindling by the minute, Australia’s final pair of No. 10 and 11 Craig McDermott and Mike Whitney looked to dig in, but for No. 11 Whitney who was playing his first Test in six years – with previous scores of 0, 0, 4, 0 and 0 not out – his survival seemed unlikely.
Somehow, Whitney got to Stumps with McDermott, with the pair unbeaten on 2 and 10 respectively, securing a draw and 1-0 series victory for Australia, their first against the Blackcaps in three attempts.
Following the gutsy draw, New Zealand’s stars were quick to put their disappointment aside, congratulating Whitney on his efforts, with Ian Smith even presenting the tailender the match ball.
The only thing is… it should have been Sir Richard Hadlee’s, with the NZ legend taking his second five-for for the match as he finished with a 10-wicket haul.
“Richard Hadlee put his arm around me and said, ‘You did a great thing for Australian cricket today’,” Whitney said on This is Your Journey – thanks to Tobin Brothers.
“Then Smithy (Ian Smith) said something similar and gave me the ball.
“Then years and years go by, I was at a luncheon with Sir Richard and he said, ‘You know that ball Smithy gave you? I took 36 five-fors and it’s the only one I don’t have’.
“I said, ‘Bad luck mate, Smithy gave it to me’, and that was the end of the conversation.”
Once Whitney thought about who deserved the ball at a later date, he realised it truly should belong to Hadlee.
With that in mind, he hatched a plan to present it to the great of the game, with his touching gesture clearly making an impact for Sir Richard and his family.
“Then a couple of years later in 2015 when we won the World Cup in Melbourne, a mate of mine was organising a function the night before the final between Australia and New Zealand and Richard was going to be there,” Whitney said.
“It got me thinking, that’s his ball not mine, and Richard’s very big on his collection. So, they invited me to this dinner, everyone was there, and I had the ball in my pocket.
“Mark Nicholas invited me upstage, so I quickly told a story, got Richard up and presented him with the ball.
“A tear ran down his face, and he locked the ball in his hand, and he just hugged me.
“It was a moment. It was the right thing to do.”
Whitney talked about that moment and much more on this week's episode.
Listen Whitney’s full episode with Sam Edmund below.
