Born October 12th 1962 in Sydney, New South Wales, former Australia Test and ODI player, Belinda Haggett was a dominant top order batter.
Batting in the middle order, Haggett made her debut for NSW in season 1982/3. It was a modest start, but she complimented her batting skills with her medium pace bowling. She stayed in the middle order for a couple of seasons, but by 1986 Belinda was in the position where she became a dominant force, in the top order.
The top three for NSW in 1986: Lindsay Reeler, Denise Annetts, and Haggett would become the bedrock of Australia’s batting.
Belinda’s Test debut was at number three for Australia and she didn’t disappoint, scoring 126, a century on debut against England at Worcester. Across 10 Tests, she scored another century and 4 half centuries, amassing 762 runs at 58.61. Her highest Test knock was 144 against India in Melbourne in 1991.
In the ODI arena, Haggett played 37 matches with a total of 913 runs at 30.43 with a high score of 80. The medium pace bowling that helped in the early days was overshadowed by her batting and she was rarely called upon, just the 3 wickets to her name.
The dominant batting by Australia during that era of the late 1980s and early 1990s was down to the three above players from NSW and with the later addition of Belinda Clark. The two Belindas, Haggett and Clark, a formidable opening pair for opposition bowlers.