About Jack Alabaster
John Chaloner Alabaster was a New Zealand cricketer who played 21 Test matches for the country's national team between 1955 and 1972. A leg-spin bowler, he was the only New Zealander to play in each of the country's first four Test victories. In domestic cricket, he was often partnered at the crease for his provincial side Otago by his younger brother Gren, who bowled off-spin. A schoolteacher, he later served as Rector of Southland Boys' High School in Invercargill. Walter Hadlee noticed his potential, however, and it was while Hadlee was on the national selection panel that, aged 25, Alabaster was selected to play for New Zealand, despite having played no first-class cricket. Later that season, back in New Zealand, Alabaster was a member of the team that won New Zealand's first Test victory, against West Indies at Eden Park, Auckland. Otago also won the Plunket Shield, and Alabaster was selected to tour England in 1958.
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