Doug Freeman

Who was Doug Freeman?

Douglas Linford Freeman was a New Zealand cricketer who played in two Tests in 1933.

Freeman attended Nelson College from 1931 to 1933. He was selected to play Test cricket for New Zealand while still a student there, and made his Test debut at the age of 18 years and 197 days. He was New Zealand's youngest test cricketer until Daniel Vettori made his debut in 1997.

A leg-spinner, Freeman had made his first-class debut only two months before, taking 4 for 85 and 5 for 102 for Wellington against Auckland. In his second first-class match, for Wellington against the MCC, he took 3 for 71, his victims Eddie Paynter, Wally Hammond and Les Ames.

He took only one wicket in the two Tests, in which Hammond made 227 and 336 not out.

He played one match in the 1933-34 season, taking one wicket, and that was the end of his first-class career, at the age of 19.

He moved to Fiji in 1935, where he worked for the Colonial Sugar Refining company. He managed the Fiji cricket team's tour of New Zealand in 1953-54 and played in some of the minor matches, but achieved little with bat or ball. He later worked for the company in Australia.