Keeping the faith in the family, the McGlashans way

Of all the personalised presents that kid sisters could demand of their big brothers, the 'cute' cricket helmet might sound the unlikeliest. But Sara McGlashan boasts of a madcap innovator for a sibling, that too one who revolutionised protective equipment for wicket-keepers with the baseball mask-shaped KPR face protector. And the fact that New Zealand's most prolific batswoman should want Peter to design custom-made headgear for her lot is only natural.

"I have always told him that he should make us a smaller helmet that fits better on our heads and is obviously more chic and fashionable," the White Ferns' batting mainstay says after top-scoring with 88 in her team's warm-up win against England on Tuesday. Sara might still be awaiting her dream present but the 30-year-old right-hander can't get over how major an influence brother Peter has been on her cricket career.

"I was a puppy-eyed younger sister trying to ape everything that Peter was doing. I grew up watching him play cricket in the backyard and it was only natural that I picked up the bat too before long," says Sara.

Cricket has been a family tradition for the McGlashans while the art of wicket-keeping has been handed down generations with maternal grandfather, the late Robin Schofield, having donned the gloves for Central Districts during the 1960s. "Grandpa had a huge influence on Peter and it rubbed onto me as well. But I gave up wicket-keeping midway through my career to concentrate more on my batting," says Sara.

Incidentally, the younger McGlashan, presently into her 10th year of international cricket, has played the fourth-most number of ODIs, with 108, for the White Ferns. Her journeyman brother, however, only managed to play four ODIs and 11 T20s for the Black Caps-though he did set a world-record for most catches in a first-class match back in 2009-before hanging up his boots last year. But Sara doesn't want to simply go by numbers and believes that both McGlashans have made a mark while representing their nation.

... contd.

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