Geoff Howarth took up a contract with Surrey and in his first year playing for the second eleven, he was informed in the last week of the season that he would not be re-engaged.
13 Facts About Geoff Howarth
1.
2.
Geoff Howarth then scored 126 not out against Glamorgan in the last game of the season.
3.
Geoff Howarth was offered a full contract in 1973 and achieved the highest score by any Surrey player that season.
4.
Geoff Howarth played a total of 188 matches for Surrey County Cricket Club in England between 1971 and 1985, and was the first overseas player to captain the club, which he did in 1984.
5.
Geoff Howarth played some Test cricket with his elder brother Hedley, but most of his 47-Test career did not overlap with Hedley's.
6.
Geoff Howarth played most of his career as a specialist batsman, captaining the team for 30 of those 47 Tests, and although his batting average of only 32 was not stunning, he did make six Test centuries.
7.
Geoff Howarth scored a century in each innings against England at Auckland in 1978.
8.
From 1978 to 1983, Geoff Howarth was rated in the top 10 batsmen in the world by the Coopers and Lybrand rating system.
9.
In 1985, Geoff Howarth scored 84 over a five-hour period in his final innings in the fourth test against the West Indies at Sabina Park, Kingston.
10.
Geoff Howarth was dropped from the New Zealand team to play Australia.
11.
Geoff Howarth became coach for the New Zealand team in the early 1990s and was coach of the ill-fated tour of South Africa in 1994.
12.
Now residing in England, Geoff Howarth returned to Wellington in 2012 as ambassador for the World Vintage Cricket Carnival; at that time he was coaching cricket at Haileybury School in Hertfordshire and continued to do so in 2017.
13.
Geoff Howarth was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire, for services to cricket, in the 1981 Queen's Birthday Honours.