OTD: Chris Kuggeleijn New Zealand’s offspinner, best remembered for one piece of fielding, was born today

Scott Christopher Kuggeleijn was born on 10th May 1956. Chris Kuggeleijn is from Auckland. Chris Kuggeleijn made his first-class debut in the Shell Cup 1975-76 against Central Districts. During his first game he scored 15 runs and remained not out. In the 1980-81 Shell Cup he smashed his first hundred against Canterbury in Hamilton. He was a brilliant cricketer and his leadership skills made him a good captain of the team.

However, in 1987-88 he was in good form against Wellington as he scored 60 runs in first innings and remained not out on 30 runs. Against Lancaster Park he scored 87 runs.  Later against in a game between England and Shell XI in New Plymouth he scored 21 runs and 46 runs with bat and picked 4 for 102 runs both innings combined. He played 89 First-Class matches and scored 3747 runs with the bat and picked 57 wickets with the ball.

With his good performance in First-Class cricket got a call to represent New Zealand in ODI. He made his ODI debut for New Zealand on 9th March 1988 against England in four-match series. He had a good performance in the first two games while in the third match he picked 2 wickets. However New Zealand equalled the series by 2-2. Later he was named in the squad that will play in the Sharjah Cup. The tournament was played between India, Sri Lanka and New Zealand. New Zealand ended as runners-up in the tournament. While Kuggeleijn was not able to make an impact for the team. He played 16 ODI for New Zealand and scored 142 runs and picked 12 wickets.

Chris Kuggeleijn also got a chance to represent New Zealand in a Test. He made his test debut on 12th November 1988 in Bengaluru against India. During the test match he took a great match to dismiss Arun Lal. However, he got to play in two matches and was able to pick only one wicket. After retiring from cricket, he took coaching as his second innings and started to coach Northern Districts. Now he has become a teacher.