Kenneth Robert Rutherford MNZM (born 26 October 1965) is a former New Zealand cricketer who enjoyed a ten-year career with the national team, and was captain for a period in the 1990s.
Making his debut during New Zealand's tour of the West Indies in 1984–85 at the age of 19, Rutherford played in all four Test matches.
[9] He was not selected for the tour of Australia in 1985–86, but after scoring 638 runs at 53.16 with three centuries in the Shell Trophy[10] he returned to the Test team when Australia toured New Zealand early in 1986, this time in the middle order, scoring two fifties in the three Tests.
He captained New Zealand's team for three years, with two Test wins in 18 attempts in what was a difficult tenure as New Zealand struggled to find a replacement for the retired Richard Hadlee and suffered the decline in power of their only world class batsman, Martin Crowe.
He was a member of the New Zealand side which reached the semi-finals of the 1992 World Cup,[11] their 2nd equal best performance in the tournament's history.
In the 1997 New Year Honours, Rutherford was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to cricket.
After coaching the Ireland national team for two years he followed his interest in horse racing, returning home to work as head bookmaker for the New Zealand TAB and then filled a similar role in Singapore.