Former Black Caps selector and New Zealand Cricket (NZC) president Don Neely passed away, aged 86 on Thursday, 16th June 2022.
Neely was a notable cricket historian and author, a life member of NZC, a trustee of the New Zealand Cricket Museum and former president of NZC and Cricket Wellington.
There has been an outpouring of tributes and condolences from the cricket world following Neely’s death.
Cricket Wellington was quick to pay tribute to Neely who spent a considerable period of his life promoting and working for cricket in the region.
The organization wrote on social media;
Neely also spent 14 years as a New Zealand selector, including seven as convener of selectors.
Neely was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 1995 New Year Honours and a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2011 New Year Honours, both for services to cricket.
In 2008, a new electronic scoreboard unveiled by the Basin Reserve was officially named the Don Neely Scoreboard after Don Neely.