Paul McEwan

Who is Paul McEwan?

Paul Ernest McEwan is a former Canterbury and New Zealand cricketer who played in 4 Tests and 17 ODIs from 1980 to 1985.

He played for Old Collegians in Christchurch and Ian Burns Cromb influenced him as a young club player. He made his first class debut for the province of Canterbury during the 1976-7 season.

McEwan was a product of St Andrew’s College, Graham Dowling’s old school, and went on to pass the record Dowling once held for run-scoring for the province. He was a hard-hitting, orthodox right-hand batsman and a right-arm medium-pace bowler who deserved greater opportunity to play and tour with the New Zealand team. McEwan played only four test matches and seventeen one day matches for New Zealand. He made his test debut in the 1979-80 series against the West Indies and toured Australia in 1980-1 and Pakistan in 1984-5.

McEwan was a consistent run-scorer for Canterbury for over a decade. His best years were 1983-4, when he scored 713 runs at 59.41 and 1989–90, when, aged 35, he scored 758 runs at 44.58. One of the best examples of McEwan’s attacking batting was when his 153 and 35-ball 50 against Auckland won the Shell Trophy for Canterbury in 1983-4.