Jack Cowie
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| Full name | John Cowie | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born |
30 March 1912 Auckland, New Zealand |
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| Died | 3 June 1994 (aged 82) Lower Hutt, Wellington, New Zealand |
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| Nickname | Bull | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Batting style | Right-handed batsman | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bowling style | Right-arm fast-medium | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Role | Opening bowler | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| International information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| National side | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Test debut (cap 27) | 26 June 1937 v England | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Last Test | 16 August 1949 v England | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Domestic team information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1932/33–1949/50 | Auckland | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Umpiring information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tests umpired | 3 (1956–1959) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| FC umpired | 18 (1955–1961) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Career statistics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Source: CricketArchive, 19 June 2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
John Cowie OBE (30 March 1912 – 3 June 1994) was a New Zealand cricketer who played in nine Tests from 1937 to 1949. His Test opportunities were restricted by New Zealand's limited programme, and his cricket career was interrupted by World War II from 1939 to 1945. Following the 1937 tour of England, Wisden commented: "Had he been an Australian, he might have been termed a wonder of the age."
A lower-order right-handed batsman and a fast-medium right-handed bowler, Cowie played first-class cricket for Auckland from the 1932-33 season, appearing regularly in Plunket Shield matches from 1934-35. According to his obituary in Wisden in 1995, he started as a batsman but converted himself into a bowler because the Auckland side had too many batsmen for him to be guaranteed a place. As a bowler, he relied on accuracy and the ability to move the ball after it pitched, and Wisden likened him to a latter-day New Zealand bowler, Richard Hadlee. But his success in domestic cricket was limited until the 1936-37 season, when he took 21 wickets in four first-class matches, and in the match against Wellington at Auckland took five wickets in an innings for the first time, finishing with five for 81.
This form won him a place in the 1937 New Zealand team to tour England under the captaincy of Curly Page.
Cowie was, in the words of Wisden's report, "the outstanding player of the team" on the 1937 tour. Having taken previously only 45 first-class wickets, he took 114 in England and Ireland, at an average of 19.95, heading the touring team's bowling figures for both average and aggregate. Wisden said that not only was he "a first-rate fast-medium bowler, but a bowler equal to anyone of his type in present-day cricket." It went on: "Some of Cowie's colleagues who had played with or against him in New Zealand were surprised at the pace off the pitch which he obtained on English wickets. A player with an enormous capacity for work, who seemed impervious to fatigue and was accurate in length and direction, he often bowled a vicious off-break and, as he could also make the ball 'lift' and swing away, he was a bowler to be feared."
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