Gary Bartlett

Who is Gary Bartlett?

Gary Alex Bartlett is a former cricketer. He played 10 Test matches for New Zealand in the 1960s as a fast bowler.

He made his first-class debut for Central Districts in the 1958-59 season aged only 17, and played all four matches for New Zealand in the non-Test series against an Australian XI in the following season. Wisden described him as "the real discovery of the season". The Australian captain, Ian Craig, described facing him in the first match of the series in Wellington: "I saw Bartlett let go of the ball, but the first I knew of where it had gone was the sound of it hitting the gloves yards behind me. I think it was the quickest bowling I faced."

He toured South Africa in 1961-62, making his Test debut and playing all five Tests. He took only eight wickets but made useful runs batting at eight or nine. He made only occasional Test appearances thereafter, all in New Zealand. His outstanding Test moment came in the Second Test against India in Christchurch in 1967-68, when he took 6 for 38 — at the time the best figures in Tests by a New Zealand bowler — in the second innings to help New Zealand to its first victory over India.