by Mayukh Ghosh

"Would you like to open the batting?"
"Yes", he said, but with a condition.
He'd be the attacker.
"Okay, that's fine"
It meant that Rod Latham needed to be the defender. But Don Neely saw how keen Mark Greatbatch was to take up the challenge.
John Wright was injured and Greatbatch took his place.
The rest is history.

Don Neely loved softball. But his brother too loved softball and decided to switch from cricket to softball.
Neely was not one to follow his brother. He chose cricket.
The other factor which swayed him in favour of cricket was the game's literature.
There was nothing in softball.
Then the commentary of the likes of Arlott, Swanton and McGilvray.
That was enough. He knew what he'd do to spend the lifetime.

Player.
Administrator.
Radio broadcaster.
Selector.
Journalist.
Television commentator.
Historian.
Writer.

Some even give him credit for making Martin Crowe open the bowling with Dipak Patel.
It's said that Neely had done this in the 1960s and Crowe followed his footsteps.
However, I have not been able to find who that bowler was or the match in which he did that.

Over sixty years in cricket, with never-ending enthusiasm.
He never misses a match at the Basin.
The scoreboard there is named after him.

One of a kind.
But little-known, like most New-Zealanders.

Don Neely was born on December 21, 1935.

P.S. The photograph with the article, I think, is an unpublished one.
Don Neely and Bill Francis at John Reid's 90th birthday function in June 2018.