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Johannesburg - One of South Africa's greatest wicketkeepers, John Henry Bickford Waite has died in Johannesburg.
He was born January 19, 1930 and was 81 years old at the time of his death.
He was the first South African to reach the milestone of 50 Test matches and although being tall for a wicketkeeper, he kept immaculately throughout his lengthy career to South Africa's fast and spin bowlers, especially South Africa's match-winning off-spinner Hugh Tayfield, off whom he effected many stumpings.
He was also a dependable batsman, opening in the early part of his career, but once Trevor Goddard joined Jack McGlew in 1955, he dropped down the order. He scored four Test centuries during his career, one against England at Old Trafford in 1955, two against Australia in 1957/58 and one against New Zealand in 1961/62.
A student at Rhodes University, Waite sprang to immediate prominence on the occasion of his first-class debut against George Mann's MCC touring team in 1948/49, scoring 80 in an Eastern Province innings of 397, but the MCC, with centuries by Charles Palmer, Denis Compton and Jack Crapp, had the better of a drawn game.
His promise was evident and he represented a South African XI against Lindsay Hassett's touring Australian team the following season when he scored 11 and 23.
Against Griqualand West in his fourth match, he stroked his way to 108, his maiden first-class century and in his next match his good form continued with scores of 84 and 125 not out against Border.
He appeared in the final tour trial for the 1951 tour of England but the South African selectors in their wisdom made it a 12-a-side game (non-first-class), with Transvaal's Russell Endean his opposite number. Western Province allrounder Clive van Ryneveld's efforts of 15 wickets for 209 (9-135 and 6-74) got him into the touring team but not in the first-class records. Waite and Endean were selected, with the younger Waite as second string keeper, but his excellent batting and keeping on the tour made him the first choice for the Test team.
On his Test debut at Trent Bridge, a match won by South Africa, Waite stroked his way to an elegant 76, adding 82 with Dudley Nourse (208) for the third wicket in just on three hours but he was dismissed run out when he slipped and was unable to regain his crease in time.
Waite reached a thousand runs on the tour (33.70) with centuries against Essex, Lancashire and Combined Services. When scoring his century against Lancashire, he and his cousin, Eric Rowan, protested against the slow-clapping of the Lancashire crowd by sitting on the pitch. On returning to the pavilion Rowan got into a fracas with a spectator and as a result never represented South Africa again after the tour.
Both Waite and Endean toured Australia and New Zealand in 1952/53 with Endean being the understudy.
In 1953/54 Waite set up a new world record of 23 Test wickets in a series against New Zealand, but broke that record in 1961/62 with 26 victims against the same team, a record he holds with Mark Boucher.
After a steady 1954/55 season he toured England again in 1955, with Chris Duckworth as his deputy, and the same combination toured in 1960, his third tour of England.
In the third Test Waite scored 113 at Old Trafford in the third Test and with McGlew and Paul Winslow also scoring centuries, South Africa ran out winners with about three minutes left on the clock, with Waite scoring the winning runs.
In 1956/57 he played in all five Tests against England, but he only scored 169 runs in the series and 16 dismissals. But the following year he was in fine form with both gloves and bat against Ian Craig's Australians, scoring two hundreds and finishing top of the averages with 362 runs (40.22) and 14 dismissals.
He scored his fourth and last Test century against John Reid's 1961/62 New Zealand touring team, and then toured Australia and New Zealand in 1964/65 with a young Denis Lindsay as his understudy. In the third Test against New Zealand at Auckland which was expected to be Waite's swansong in Tests, he played as a batsman only with Lindsay keeping.
During his Test career he scored 2 405 runs with a highest score of 134, with four centuries and 16 50s, and his run total by a wicketkeeper and total of 141 dismissals (124 catches, 17 stumpings) in Tests was the South African record for many decades.
Dave Richardson exceeded his dismissals, reaching 152 in 42 Tests well over 30 years later, while current wicketkeeper Mark Boucher has now scored five centuries and exceeds 5 000 runs.
