Brian Frederick Hastings was born on March 23, 1940, and passed away on October 7, 2024. He was a cricketer from New Zealand. As a middle-order batsman, he played in 31 Test matches from 1969 to 1976. During this time, he scored four centuries. He also played first-class cricket for Wellington, Central Districts, and Canterbury from 1958 to 1977.

Cricket career

Born on 23 March 1940 in the southern Wellington suburb of Island Bay, Hastings was educated at Wellington College. He made his first professional match for Wellington at age 17 in the final game of the Plunket Shield in 1957–58, scoring 27 and 22 in a match with few runs scored that Wellington won. He was chosen to play in one of the trial matches to help select the team for a tour to England in 1958, but he did not perform well enough to be chosen.

He did not play first-class cricket again until late in 1960, but he led the New Zealand Colts team on its tour of Australia in the 1959–60 season. In 1960–61, he played a full season of first-class cricket with Central Districts, with some success. In 1961, he moved in his job with Shell Oil New Zealand from Blenheim to Christchurch to start working at The Press. In the 1961–62 season, he played his first match for Canterbury in the final

After cricket

Hastings worked as a manager for The Press in Christchurch for 38 years and retired in the late 1990s. After retiring, he joined his former Test teammate, Graham Vivian, in a business that supplies artificial turf. From 2000 to 2002, Hastings served as a match referee in 10 Test matches and 18 One Day Internationals. He also held the position of president for Canterbury Cricket and for the Canterbury Park Trotting Club.

Hastings passed away at Parklands Retirement Village, located in the Christchurch suburb of Papanui, on October 7, 2024, at the age of 84.