Mark John Greatbatch is a former New Zealand international cricketer. He scored more than 2,000 runs in his 41 Test matches for New Zealand. A left-handed batsman and occasional right-arm medium pace bowler in first class cricket for Auckland and Central Districts, Greatbatch scored 9,890 first class runs in total as well as being an occasional wicket keeper. A fine fielder, he took some spectacular catches, usually in the slips. Without Greatbatch, there was no Sanath Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana; there was no Virender Sehwag or Adam Gilchrist. Sure, there had been top-order dashers in the past - but never had anybody been sent out with such murderous intent.

A beefy and charismatic left-hander, Mark Greatbatch was a solid batsman at Test level but in limited-overs cricket he could be a different character and was one of the first one-day pinch hitters. He learnt his trade in the leagues of New Zealand and England, and ground out an unusually dogged hundred on his Test debut against England in 1987/88.

Greatbatch highest test score of 146 not out off 485 balls was against Australia at Perth in November 1989. Greatbatch was at the crease for 11 hours (2 days) to save New Zealand from defeat, the game ending in a draw because of his efforts. Australia batted first on a really good wicket. David Boon hit 200 and Dean Jones fell one short of a century on 99. Australia ended on 520. Greatbatch scored 76, Martin Crowe 50-odd, but New Zealand were still 290 behind. They enforced the follow-on, and they had Terry Alderman, Geoff Lawson, Carl Rackemann, and Merv Hughes who bowled very well. And they didn't play a spinner.

Mark Greatbatch batted for 655 minutes, played 435 deliveries, and hit 17 boundaries in his mammoth knock. He received a standing ovation at the end of the game. Greatbatch's defensive innings is still considered by pundits to be one of the greatest cricket centuries ever be a New Zealand batsman - under the circumstances.

For the 1992 Cricket World Cup Greatbatch was not selected to play in the first match, against Australia. However, he was selected to open against South Africa in place of John Wright, who had been injured, and proceeded to bat to take advantage of fielding restrictions early in the innings. Martin Crowe had a deeper faith in Greatbatch - more than most. He was a contemporary of Crowe's at Auckland Grammar, the country's most prolific producer of sporting talent. There Greatbatch had lived in Crowe's considerable shadow, but that was okay. He told people that his goal was to become as good as Crowe, and that sounded a little lofty. The rest was history. He neutered South Africa's four-pronged and vaunted pace attack, including Allan Donald, hitting 68 off 60 balls and putting on 103 with Latham in the first 15 overs. The strategy worked, so was repeated again throughout the World Cup and Greatbatch became one of the first 'pinch hitter' players to open an innings in One Day Internationals.

Crowe and Greatbatch, with useful contributions from the rest, started flying. They didn't hit turbulence until they lost their last round-robin game in Christchurch, a match that Pakistan had to win to make the semi-finals. They met the same side again in the Semi-finals and their 262 in Auckland should have been plenty enough to win, but for the first time in the tournament the cricketing gods scowled at the home side. Crowe pulled a muscle while batting - as his runner, Greatbatch had the misfortune to run his skipper out for 91.

The 1992 World Cup he was instrumental in their success and Greatbatch ended with 313 runs at 44.71 with a strikerate of 87.92. He followed with another Test hundred against Pakistan, but a loss of form, especially against the short ball, and a new national captain-coach team led to him being sidelined. Greatbatch was actually a much better player than a new-ball basher, but he had little choice but to play the role he had created, to continue the myth-making.

Greatbatch, with his sturdy frame, his twitching moustache and a piece of four-by-two with SS Turbo stickers on it, did not only change the course of the 1992 World Cup, he changed the ODI paradigm. He also, all-too-fleetingly, turned a rugby country into a cricket one. Because of this success other cricketing nations, notably Sri Lanka, adopted the idea of opening with an aggressive batsman who normally plays in the middle order of test matches to score quick runs early and this tactic is now common in international cricket. Mark Greatbatch finished his career with 2,021 Test runs and 2,206 ODI runs.

Greatbatch played out his ODI career as an opener with fleeting success until his career ended in 1996. Crowe became hostage to a debilitating knee injury and retired at 33. New Zealand cricket went into a period where it veered between hopeless and free fall, pretty much until Stephen Fleming and coach Steve Rixon pulled them around in the late 1990s.

In September 2005 he became director of coaching at Warwickshire County Cricket Club in England. After relegation from both the County Championship and Pro40 League in 2007 he was replaced by Ashley Giles. In January, 2010, Greatbatch was appointed the coach of the New Zealand national cricket team. In 2022, Asterix, a horse that Greatbatch partly owned, won the New Zealand Derby.