First Western Australia Test player dies aged 92

Western Australia cricket pioneer John Rutherford – the first WA-based player to represent Australia in Test cricket – has passed away at the age of 92.

A right-handed opening batter, Rutherford was selected on Australia's extended tour of England, Pakistan and India in 1956, earning a Baggy Green as the 204th man to play for Australia.

He played his sole Test at Brabourne Stadium in what was then known as Bombay (now Mumbai) at the back end of the tour, scoring 30 in the drawn second Test of Australia's first ever tour of India.

With Australia using eight bowlers in each innings, Rutherford's wrist-spin also yielded him a Test wicket with 1-11 from five second-innings overs, bowling Vijay Manjrekar.

While he would never play Test cricket again, he helped pave the way for a generation of Western Australian stars to follow, including the likes of Dennis Lillee and Rod Marsh.

In an era of Australian cricket administration where players from Western Australia were largely overlooked and the state played few Sheffield Shield matches, Rutherford would not be ignored.

Having averaged more than 50 in first-class cricket in the 1954-55 summer and starting 1955-56 season with a century against Queensland, Rutherford was invited to Sydney for a trial match ahead of the lengthy mid-year tour.

Arriving in Sydney to find the rest of the squad was at the SCG for a practice session he hadn't been told about, Rutherford shrugged it off and scored 113 against a Ray Lindwall led attack to book his spot on the tour.

Told he could join the tour when the ship docked in Fremantle – after the squad had already played several games on the east coast – Rutherford protested before then-selector Don Bradman intervened.

At the first stop, he hadn't been booked into a hotel room, and slept on the floor between the beds of Neil Harvey and Len Maddocks.

Rutherford played 67 first-class games for 3,367 runs at 31.76 with six centuries and 15 half-centuries, including 2,200 runs at 37.93 in 33 Sheffield Shield matches.

His first-class career ended abruptly when he suffered a stroke on the field while captaining WA in a tour match against the West Indies in 1960.

A mathematics and science teacher, Australian icon Keith Miller dubbed him Pythagoras during the journey to England after explaining how to work out the distance to the horizon from the ship's bridge.

During his later years, Rutherford donned his Baggy Green as a regular guest of honour for the annual social cricket match played each January at Wedge Island near Lancelin.

"It's made a colossal difference to me. As soon as I say I've got a Baggy Green, up goes people's attention," Rutherford told ESPN in a 2015 interview.

"It's helped me quite a lot in a number of ways. And I was very fortunate in getting eight months with the Australian XI; guys like Miller and Lindwall, I was with them all the time."

WA Cricket Chief Executive Officer Christina Matthews said: "John Rutherford played an enormous role in placing WA Cricket on the map, at a time when the national side was dominated by players from the Eastern States.

"He was a talkative and charismatic personality, and his passion for cricket was infectious.

"On behalf of everyone at WA Cricket and the state's cricketing community, we send our deepest condolences to the Rutherford family."