1. Walter Mervyn Wallace was a New Zealand cricketer and former Test match captain.
21 Facts About Merv Wallace
1. 2.
Merv Wallace left school aged 13, and was coached at Eden Park by Ted Bowley and Jim Parks.
3.
Merv Wallace played cricket with his brother, George Wallace, with the Point Chevalier Cricket Club, and then the Auckland under-20 side.
4.
Merv Wallace made his first-class debut for Auckland in the Plunket Shield in December 1933.
5.
Merv Wallace scored two half-centuries on his Test debut, at Lord's.
6.
Merv Wallace headed the tour batting averages, scoring 1,641 runs at an average of 41.02.
7.
Merv Wallace scored 211, his highest first-class score, against Canterbury in January 1940, making his runs in 292 minutes.
8.
Merv Wallace joined the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, but was invalided out due to stomach muscle problems caused by an appendix operation.
9.
Merv Wallace played in New Zealand's first Test against Australia, in Wellington in March 1946, which Australia won by an innings within two days.
10.
Merv Wallace joined the four-Test tour to England in 1949 as vice-captain to Walter Hadlee.
11.
Merv Wallace scored 1,722 first-class runs at an average of 49.20, including centuries against Yorkshire, Worcester, Leicester, Cambridge University and Glamorgan.
12.
Merv Wallace made his Test best score of 66 against England at Christchurch in 1951, and played his last two Tests as captain against the touring South Africans in 1953.
13.
Merv Wallace began coaching in his early twenties, when he was employed by the Auckland sporting gods store Wisemans to coach in schools.
14.
Merv Wallace continued to coach at school and club level for most of his life.
15.
Merv Wallace was the official coach of New Zealand's first victorious Test team, against the West Indies at Eden Park in 1956.
16.
In those circumstances, Merv Wallace would have been a priceless asset.
17.
Merv Wallace ran a sports shop in Auckland with tennis player Bill Webb from 1947 to 1982.
18.
Merv Wallace was awarded the Bert Sutcliffe Medal in 2005.
19.
The Old Members Stand at the Eden Park Outer Oval was renamed the Merv Wallace Stand in his honour.
20.
Merv Wallace suffered from diabetes in later life, becoming blind and losing several toes.
21.
Merv Wallace died in Auckland on Good Friday in 2008.