John Kay

Who is John Kay?

John Kay was a British cricket correspondent for the Manchester Evening News from the end of the Second World War to 1975 and for the Brighton Argus. He toured Australia for the 1950-51 Ashes series for the Manchester Evening News and wrote several cricketing books, including Ashes to Hassett and Cricket in the Leagues. He played for Middleton in the Central Lancashire League and when Basil d'Oliveira emigrated from South Africa in 1960 because Apartheid banned him from playing first-class cricket he arranged for him to play for Middleton as a professional. He wrote that d'Oliveira was surprised to see white people serving him in restaurants and doing menial work. D'Oliveira later played for Worcestershire County Cricket Club and England.

His prose style was colourful and he could be critical, as evidenced by these two examples from Ashes to Hassett

All Australia honoured Hutton as the world's best batsman, and never did a man play harder or more successfully on his country's behalf…One man cannot make a cricket team, but Len Hutton did the next best thing in Australia last winter. He stood alone. Surperb [sic] in craftsmanship, magnificent in the hour of stress, veritably a giant among all batsmen and worthy of ranking with such famous names as Hobb, Sutcliffe, Woolley, Hammond…they were masters of all they surveyed. So was Hutton.