Walter Arnold Hadlee CBE was a New Zealand cricketer and Test match captain. He played domestic first-class cricket for Canterbury and Otago. Three of his five sons, Sir Richard, Dayle and Barry played cricket for New Zealand. The Chappell–Hadlee Trophy, which is competed for by ODI teams from New Zealand and Australia is named in honour of the Hadlee family and the Australian Chappell family. It would not be an exaggeration to call Walter Hadlee, the Father of New Zealand cricket. One of the early champions for New Zealand, Hadlee guided them in an era when they were a mere pushovers in the international arena.

No man had contributed more to the history, the traditions, the occasional quirks of New Zealand cricket than Walter Hadlee; the player, captain, selector and manager of New Zealand teams, board member, chairman and president of the New Zealand Cricket Council, and the first New Zealander to stand as an equal among international administrators. “Spare, slight, angular, nimble and trim,” wrote Denzil Batchelor, “he wore white flannels as a fish wears gills.” An attacking batsman, Hadlee made his Test debut in England in 1937, but like many, he lost his best years to the war, and with New Zealand, not a major Test-playing nation, his chances were limited anyway.

Hadlee was born June 4, 1915 in Lincoln, Canterbury. His father was a blacksmith with 9 siblings, whose parents arrived in Dunedin in 1869. The young Hadlee fell in love with cricket when he was about 10. He read cricket history avidly, kept scorebooks of all the big games at Lancaster Park, and practised assiduously. Though he initially appeared awkward, at Christchurch Boys' High School, he also played hockey and rugby, and developed into a punishing batsman, particularly strong on the drive. He finished his school career by captaining the first eleven and trained as a chartered accountant.

Hadlee broke through to the Canterbury side in his teens, and started with a deluge of runs. His first two seasons fetched him 631 runs at an average of 63. In his first season for Canterbury (1933/34) Hadlee averaged over 50, and 94 in his second; he eventually scored 10 centuries for the province. Hadlee played 44 matches for Canterbury before retiring in 1951–52, having scored 3,183 runs at an average of 43.60. His highest score was 194 not out. Hadlee was selected to tour England with the 1937 New Zealand team. The tour was the first of its kind in New Zealand’s history. New Zealand played 40 matches on the tour, 34 of them First-Class. They won 15 (3 by an innings), drew 24, and lost a solitary match - a shock defeat against Oxford, where the unlikely seam-bowling pair of Philip Whitcombe and Michael Wrigley bowled them out twice. In other words, New Zealand fell one match short of being called Hadlee’s ‘Invincibles’. And Walter absolutely hated the Oxford defeat.

Hadlee made his Test debut against England at Lord's in 1937, only 11 years after New Zealand joined the Imperial Cricket Conference, and 7 years after it played in its first Test match. They fought tooth-and-nail in every Test of the series. Set 299 at Headingley, New Zealand scored 195 for 2 in 49 overs. At Lord’s they led by 171 runs, and England managed 306 for 5 before time ran out. At Old Trafford England led by 147, but New Zealand finished on 348 for 7. In a near-encore at The Oval, England led by 137, but once again New Zealand played out time and scored 308 for 9. They could have won every Test. They could have lost every Test. Unfortunately, lengths of Tests were not standardised at that point, and the series had only three-day Tests. Hadlee returned home with his head held high. It was, till then, the greatest moment in New Zealand cricket history.

He captained the New Zealand side superbly in the equally splendid English summer of 1949 with such dedication and determination that anything afterward seemed anti-climactic. On that tour Hadlee was more than a cricketer or a captain: the tour, more than anything else, served as the canvas on which he New Zealand team for the 1950s would be built. Tall and elegant, he was known as an upright and attacking opening batsman. He missed the opportunity to play during the Second World War. His short sight prevented him from joining the Armed Forces.

He scored 198 for Otago against the touring Australian team in 1945/46, and was appointed captain of New Zealand for the first Test in peacetime, against Australia that year. On a rain-affected pitch in Wellington, New Zealand were bowled out for 42 and 54, losing by an innings, and did not play Australia again in Tests until 1973/74. Despite having lost his best years to War, Hadlee came back in resounding form, slamming 157 against Auckland. Then came the match against the touring Australians — a side that boasted Bill O’Reilly, Ray Lindwall, Ian Johnson, Bruce Dooland, and Colin McCool. Hadlee earned reputation for his doggedness under pressure. He could hit the ball extremely hard. Few batsmen in post-war cricket have driven a ball with Hadlee’s power and precision. He was a classical right-hander: tall, very forceful off the front foot, and scoring most of his runs forward of the wicket. The cover drive, executed off either foot, was his most spectacular and productive shot.

Although he made 1,225 runs in 1937, including an innings of 93 in the Test at Old Trafford which ended after he trod on his stumps, it was his captaincy of the 1949 New Zealand team to England that proved to be the pinnacle of his playing career. The 1949 team is still cited as one of the finest New Zealand has sent abroad and there were some illustrious names in the side, including Bert Sutcliffe, Martin Donnelly, John Reid, Jack Cowie, Tom Burtt, Harry Cave, Merv Wallace, Verdun Scott, Geoff Rabone and Frank Mooney. Donnelly, of course, was the star batsman of the side. The perfect amalgamation of talent, willpower, and experience, Donnelly crossed the 2,000-run mark in the season at an average in excess of 60. During the tour, Hadlee scored 1,439 runs, averaging 36 an innings, with two centuries. Out of 35 matches, his team lost just one, on a rain-damaged pitch, and drew the four-Test series.

In all, Hadlee played 19 innings in 11 Tests, scoring 543 runs at an average of 30.16. He was never dismissed in Tests in single figures. His last Test was against England in Wellington in 1950/51. His only Test century, 116, came against England at Christchurch in 1946/47 as an opening batsman. He retired from first-class cricket in 1952. He continued playing senior club cricket in Christchurch for another 15 years, eventually scoring a record 15,391 club runs. In his first-class career, he scored 7523 runs from 117 matches, averaging 40.44 and notching up 18 centuries.

Hadlee was a national selector, a New Zealand team manager, and a member of the management committee and Board of Control of New Zealand cricket from 1950 to 1983. He was chairman from 1973 to 1978 and president from 1981 to 1983. He was a member of the "No Maori’s, No Tour" protest movement, protesting against the All Blacks tour to South Africa in 1960. He was later blacklisted by the South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee (SANROC) for writing an article in the 1982 Wisden which called for South Africa be permitted to play international cricket. Hadlee was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services in the field of sport,[3] and he was promoted to Commander of the same order, for services to cricket, in the 1978 Queen's Birthday Honours.

Hadlee married Lilla Monro in 1940. They had met on the ship to England in 1937. They had five sons. He took great pride that three of his five sons represented New Zealand: Dayle, a Test fast bowler, and Barry, a batsman in the inaugural 1975 Cricket World Cup, were eclipsed by Richard, who became a leading all-rounder: he took 431 Test wickets – a world record at the time – and 1,490 first class wickets, and also finished with a Test batting average of 27.16. Richard was knighted for services to cricket. A fourth son, Martin, played club cricket in Christchurch. When Dayle was selected for New Zealand, Walter was heard to remark, “you haven’t picked the best one” - obviously in reference to the young Richard who was yet to leave his mark on NZ cricket.

In later life, he enjoyed lawn bowls. He died, aged 91, at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Christchurch, reportedly from a stroke, some six weeks after hip replacement surgery. On 20 January 2017, Walter Hadlee's son, Sir Richard Hadlee, spoke about a project he has undertaken about his father 's 1949 England tour as New Zealand captain. He shared how Walter Hadlee was an important figure in his life.