Cricket Wellington is pleased to announce the signing of former BLACKCAPS Test and One-Day International opener Michael Papps for the 2011/12 season.
Papps will join the Wellington Firebirds at the end of the UK season, where he is currently playing league cricket.
Papps, 32, joins the Firebirds from the Canterbury Wizards for whom he has played all his New Zealand domestic representative cricket for so far in an impressive First-Class career that has seen him play 119 matches and scored almost 7,500 runs since making his Plunket Shield debut in 1998/99.
Cricket Wellington Chief Executive Gavin Larsen said the Wellington Firebirds were thrilled that Papps will be making the Hawkins Basin Reserve his home this summer. “We are delighted to have signed a player of Michael Papps’ calibre, his domestic record is outstanding and he will add both experience and leadership to our top order batting,” said Larsen.
Canterbury Cricket Chief Executive Lee Germon thanked Papps for this contribution to the Wizards and wished him well in the next phase of his career.
“Michael has been one of the most influential contributors to Canterbury Cricket over the course of his career. His record speaks for itself and although the Wizards will miss his considerable skill and experience I wish him well,” said Germon.
Papps joins Wellington after 95 First-Class games for Canterbury. In 2006/07 he became one of ten individual players to score over 1,000 runs in a First-Class season in New Zealand and has twice hit four centuries in a single domestic First-Class season, in 2006/07 and 2009/10.
His career total of 6,663 runs for Canterbury is the second most by an individual player for one province, behind Central Districts’ Matthew Sinclair who has scored 7,693 for the Stags.
His 19 First-Class centuries for Canterbury are the fourth most for a single province behind Sinclair (22) and recently retired Firebirds player Matthew Bell for Wellington and Craig Cumming for Otago (both 20).
As well as shaping an outstanding record in the longer format of the game, Papps is also practiced in the shorter versions having playing 116 combined domestic and international One-Day matches and scoring over 4,000 runs. In domestic Twenty20 cricket he has scored 621 runs at a strike rate of well over 100.
He has played eight Tests and six One-Day Internationals for the BLACKCAPS, making both his Test and ODI debuts against South Africa in the 2004/05 home series.
Michael Papps
Born: 2 July 1979
Major teams: Canterbury Wizards, BLACKCAPS
Playing role: Right-hand top order batsman
Test matches: 8 (debut v South Africa, Hamilton 2004/05)
One Day Internationals: 6 (debut v South Africa, Auckland 2004/05)
First-class record (includes domestic and international): Debut Canterbury v Otago 1998/99; matches 119; runs 7,457; highest score 192; average 37.47; 100s 20, 50s 32
List A record (50-over matches, including domestic and international):Debut Cantebrury v Auckland 1999/00; matches 116; runs 4,113; highest score 150; average 38.43; 100s 9, 50s 22
Twenty20 matches (domestic): Debut Canterbury v Otago 2005/06; matches 32; runs 621; strike rate 113.32; highest score 66
