Ken McEwan: Itinerant lucky charm?
Ken McEwan © Getty Images[/caption] How does one refer to a player who has graced five different teams in his First-Class career across three different continents and has been on the winning side of the respective Domestic First-Class tournaments with four of them? As Kenneth Scott McEwan, perhaps? Ken McEwan was born July 16, 1952 at Bedford, Cape Province, South Africa, the only son of a sheep and cattle farmer. Primarily a right-handed batsman, he bowled the occasional right-arm off-break and kept wickets in the odd match. He had the misfortune of growing up in a South Africa under sanction and banished from international cricket for political reasons, so that despite his considerable cricketing skills, he was never a member of any Test team. As his career statistics were to show later, Test cricket was the poorer for it. He made his First-Class debut for Eastern Province in Currie Cup 1972-73 against Transvaal, scoring 4 and 24 — nothing sensational as debuts go. In his first stint at First-Class cricket in his native South Africa, he played 19 matches for Eastern Province between 1972-73 and 1973-74, with four fifties but no hundred (though he scored two 90s). His talent, nevertheless, was spotted by Tony Greig, who had coached him in his final year of school and who recommended him for Sussex. Sussex, however, were not able to accommodate McEwan and he joined the staff of Essex in 1974 as a replacement for Australian opener Bruce Francis. His association with Essex was a long and fruitful one. He played 282 First-Class matches for Essex from 1974 to 1985, scoring 18,088 runs, with 52 centuries and a highest score of 218 (ironically, versus Sussex, captained by his first mentor Tony Greig, in 1977), with an average of 43.37. He took 197 catches for his adopted English team and even snared 4 wickets for them. He achieved his maiden First-Class century (119 not out) while playing for Essex against Middlesex in 1974. In 1976, McEwan had a sequence of 4 successive First-Class centuries beginning with the 218 mentioned above against Sussex (when he became the first player from Essex to score a double-century in nine years). He followed up with 102 and 116 against Warwickshire and 106 not out against Gloucestershire. During his tenure with Essex, the team won their first ever County Championship in 1979, getting the better of Worcestershire, and added two further titles in 1983 and 1984. They also won the Sunday League in 1981, 1984 and 1985, the Benson & Hedges Trophy in 1979 and the NatWest Trophy in 1985. McEwan proved to be a stalwart for Essex with bat, scoring at least 1,000 runs in each season for them. His best year for Essex was 1983 when he scored 2,176 runs from 26 matches with 8 centuries, a highest of 189 not out and an average of 64. He also headed the national runs tally for the season that year. In all, McEwan played 76 matches for Eastern Province between 1972-73 and 1989-90, scoring 4,229 runs for them, with 6 centuries and 24 fifties and a highest of 191 (in 1989-90), and an average of 35.53. He took 108 catches for them and made 7 stumpings. His efforts for Eastern Province carried the team to their first ever Currie Cup title in 1988-89 and to a repeat in 1989-90, when they were the joint winners with Western Province. McEwan’s roaming spirit took him to Australia and he played Sheffield Shield cricket in 1979-80 and 1980-81 for Western Australia. He scored 1,093 runs for Western Australia in 18 matches with 2 centuries and a highest of 177 (in 1980-81) and an average of 35.25. Two catches completed his efforts for his Australian team. Western Australia won the Sheffield Shield in 1980-81, McEwan’s second and last with them. The charms of his home country lured him back, to sign up for Western Province this time, from 1981-82 to 1986-87. For his second “home” team, McEwan aggregated 2,357 runs from 37 matches, with 10 centuries and a highest of 149 (in 1982-83), and a very respectable average of 48.10. He also took 42 catches. McEwan ended his stint with Western Province with titles for his team in 1981-82 and 1985-86. Ken McEwan did play one season (1991-92) for another South African domestic team, Border, but could not carry them to the domestic title in that season, the winners of the Castle Cup for that season being Eastern Province. Even as early as 1978, this is what the Bible of cricket had to say about him, “The secret weapon in his armoury is his timing, so perfect that the ball can be seen striking the boundary boards through the covers and mid-wicket before a fielder has had time to move. He also displays refreshing use of his feet, never afraid to dance down the pitch to the slower bowlers…” In a First-Class span of 1972-73 to 1991-92, Ken McEwan played 428 matches in all (705 innings), for a grand total of 26,628 runs and 74 centuries. He was named Wisden Cricketer of the Year award for 1978, and South African Cricket Annual Cricketer of the Year Award in 1983, 1986, 1987 and 1989. The Professional Cricketers’ Association Player of the Year Award came his way in 1983. A grateful Essex gave him a benefit season in 1984. When the dust had died down and the curtain had finally descended on his First-Class career, he had scored the second highest number of centuries (74) after John Langridge of Sussex (76) among players who never appeared in a Test. (Pradip Dhole is a retired medical doctor with a life-long interest in cricket history and statistics)