One Day Wonder
By Joseph Romanos
From New Zealand Listener, February 13, 1999

With Dion Nash leading, the New Zealand cricket team carries the battle to the opposition.

Image: Dion Nash on the cover of the Listener

Psst... whisper it quietly... New Zealand has a cricket team again, a real cricket team. A test series win over India and then a drawn one-day series in January were pointers to unsuspected steel in a team that for some years has been a national joke. Indications are that New Zealand is now fielding its best side in a decade, since Richard Hadlee struck fear into the world's leading batsmen through the 1980's.

After these long years of talking big and performing small, of embarrassing capitulation, of wayward behaviour, why are the Black Caps, as the marketing boffins want them called, now finally playing well?

Two reasons. Firstly they're getting older and wiser. Flem and Harry, Doully and Cairnsey, Adam and Lucas... they're all seasoned internationals now. But the ingredient that has really made the difference and has clearly lifted the side a full level, is the permanent prescence of Dion Nash, the charismatic all-rounder with the penchant for performing best when the going is toughest. Nash is gritty and competitive, athletic and skilled.

During the test series, it was Nash who shored up the team when things were tottering. In the first test he rescued the side with a stoic 89 not out, turning a losing situation into a winning one. It was the same in the second test, at Hamilton. His timely 63 run out staved off a likely defeat and ensured that New Zealand won the series. In both tests he bowled well, long spells full of venom. Of course, it wasn't only Nash. Chris Cairns, Adam Parore, Craig McMillan, Daniel Vettori, Simon Doull, Paul Wiseman and Matt Horne all had their moments during the two tests. But if we are searching for the "x" factor, it was Nash. He became the measuring stick and his team-mates responded.

In the one-dayers against India, with the captain, Stephen Fleming, absent injured, it was Nash who led the side with panache and fight. He never backs away from a tough situation. He promoted himself above Chris Harris and Parore in the batting order, and bowled in the tight situations. Why, the man could be Australian, and that is said in the kindest way.

Nash, now 27, has had extremely bad luck with injuries, so the talent that was revealed at Lords in 1994, when he became the first player ever to take 10 wickets and score a half-century in a test at cricket's headquarters, is only now being fulfilled.

New Zealand coach Steve Rixon, an Aussie who has been trying to make our boys show some courage for years, is in no doubt about Nash. "He brings out the competitive edge and the fight in our guys. It's something we've lacked," says Rixon. "When Dion first got into the side, I rubbed my hands together and said, 'Hallelujah! At last here's someone from the same corner.'

"Not having had Dion in the team a lot of the time has hurt. New Zealand cricket doesn't have the depth to get by without players like him. I call him a bowling all-rounder. He is a genuine first-change test bowler, very under-rated. Whenever there is some humidity, or a chance to move the ball, he benefits. His batting is good and he is so determined that he has turned himself into a genuine all-rounder. That gives us three all-rounders in Cairns, Nash and Parore. It's great to have that depth."

Cairns had been Fleming's vice-captain in the past, but he lacks the consistency to handle the job. Nash delights in carrying the battle to the opposition, and it was a good decision by Rixon to promote him to leading the side in Fleming's abscence.

Nash did such a good job that many cricket followers would like him to remain in charge. Fleming is a popular, unexcitable personality, but doesn't have the demeanour of a captain. When Walter Hadlee, John Reid or Geoff Howarth were on the field, they looked like captains. Fleming lets things drift. Nash brings urgency to the proceedings; he tries to make things happen. He has also proved better at communicating with his bowlers.

No matter how tense the situation, Nash seems to be thriving. He looks as if he really belongs on the international stage and says, "I enjoy the challenge. The best place for me to perform is to be a test cricketer."

Nash says that he is more than happy just to fill in for Fleming when required, and Rixon, naturally, professes total satisfaction with the way Fleming is handling things. But Nash is the natural leader. He is able to take on the views of his experienced players, then make his own decision. Considering he has had little captaincy experience- at Dargaville Boys High and Auckland Grammar- his leadership is surprisingly astute. During the one-day series against India, New Zealand were without Fleming, Nathan Astle and Geoff Allot through injury, and did well to split the four completed matches, shading a side that had dealt severely to crack the Australians just months earlier.

Ironically, Nash showed his quality as a person by being one of the three players with enough integrity to admit he had smoked dope during that infamous evening in Paarl during the 1995 tour of South Africa. While older team-mates lied and ducked for cover, Nash, Fleming and MatthewHart put their hands up and admitted their stupidity. They were then punished twice- and in-house fine and later suspension by New Zealand Cricket. Their reputations, fortunately, were not diminished. "It's still brought up now and again," says Nash. "It causes a few jibes, but people have got over it and these days most people see the funny side of it. Even so, it wasn't a great moment of my life."

It is worth having a look at Nash's background, for he has rather crept up on cricket followers. he is Auckland born, grew up in Dargaville and played for Northern Districts, even if it meant a daunting amount of travel to attend practices. He attracted national attention as early as 1991, when he played for a Yound New Zealand team, alongside Fleming, Astle and Jeff Wilson. Bowling fast with a slightly awkward action, batting aggressively and fielding energetically, he was most impressive. At that point he and Wilson looked the most likely to blossom into international stars.

A year later he had an outstanding tour of India with a New Zealand youth team, making scores of 109, 120 not out and 110 and taking 5-67 and 5-44. Significantly, he played his best when his team was in trouble.

His test debut came in Zimbabwe six months later, but it was at Lords in 1994 that he attracted world attention. His double of 6-76 and 5-93 and a score of 56 really captured English attention. He accounted for Grahan Gooch, Alec Stewart and Robin Smith in each innings and looked every inch a virile, athletic all-rounder. Middlesex offered him a county contract.

Then the wheels fell off. He began to suffer back injuries and, although he battled on for Middlesex, his stint of county cricket was hard work. "In my first season, I made 500 runs and took 50 wickets. I was looking forward to going back, so it was disappointing not to be able to. I feel like I left that side of my cricket a little unfinished. Now county cricket has slipped down my priority list because I'm very involved with the New Zealand team."

His international career drifted through 1996 and 1997 and he began to wonder if he would ever make a go of it in big cricket. "There was a period of a few months when I got very down. I thought about chucking it in," he says.

Instead he knuckled down, remodelled his action to ease the strain on his back and climbed back into the New Zealand team. "Having been off the scene, I cherish it now. One of the things I've realised is just how much I love cricket."

His fiercely combative nature was again seen in January, 1998 when New Zealand met South Africa in a vital one-dayer at Brisbane. Chasing 300, New Zealand were 197-7 when Nash joined Adam Parore. They added 69 in 49 deliveries. After Parore departed, Nash carried the charge. Needing six to win, with two balls remaining, Nash lapped a ball to backwards square leg. It landed on the boundary rope for four, when another centimetre would have brought him a winning six. He was caught near the boundary off the last ball.

Former national cricketer selector Don Neely has watched Nash's development and is most enthusiastic. "he is a man of exceptional strength of character and it is impossible to remain indifferent to him," he wrote recently. "He has all the qualities to make him a great leader and is an exellent example of the head and heart being the most important parts of a cricketer's anatomy."

Nash says the change in the attitude of the New Zealand team these days is noticeable. "The team has been through a difficult period. There were some real fiascos, guys writing books, new coaches and captains. They had their effect. It was left to a group of young guys to try to find their feet and bear the burden. But the team is past that now. The environment in the team is excellent."

Nash, a down to earth sort, is even postiice about the enlarged management team, which now includes a coach, a technical coach, a psychologist and a media officer, plus the usual physio and manager. "At the start I had- what should I say?- an open mind. But now I can say its the best management I've come across. Everyone has a place and it's briliant being able to turn to people for specific help. Everyone knows their role."

Now the challenge for Nash, and the rest of the New Zealand side, is to foot it with the feared South African side. Six one-dayers and three tests will be played through to the end of March, and if New Zealand can emerge with honour they will have played well. This is the South African side that has just smashed Brian Lara's West Indians in five straight tests and then outplayed them in the one-dayers.

"I put them in the top two in the world in both test and one-day cricket," says Rixon, "We have to look at their strengths and negate them. India had the bastmen and we had to devise tactics to counter them, which I thoguht we did quite successfully. Now we have to look at South Africa. They had tremendous fast bowling, especially with Donald and Sean Pollock. Their batting is strong right through the order and their fielding is out of this world. And they're really competitive. Once those Yaapies get hold of your throat, they don't let go."

For New Zealand Cricket, the season is set up beautifully. The Indian tour, built around the Boxing Day test at the Basin reserve, was a financial boon. Now, with South Africanm stars such as Donald, Pollock, Jonty Rhodes, Hansie Cronje and Darryl Cullinan about to tour and the test team at last backing up words with action, the prospects are enticing.

For Nash, who will captain New Zealand in at least the first three one-dayers while Fleming recovers from his groin tendon surgery, a key word is respect. "We don't want to be seen as easy-beats, a team to be knocked over. We have naturally aggresive batsman like Cairns, Fleming, Astle, McMillan and Horne. With all them you need a couple of grinders as well. It's a balance. The main thing is that you have to be able to fight when things get tough."

Nash says the team can feel the support of New Zealand cricket followers flowing back. "I don't want to jump to conclusions about the public, but there has been a little bit of a resurgence in test cricket, because we played well and fought hard. And the one-dayers against India were excellent matches."

Rixon says the New Zealand team is playing its best cricket in the 2 1/2 years he has been in charge. "It's a nice feeling, I can tell you, to sit there and watch the team with the ability and the will to fight back in dicey situations. But the real test will come against South Africa. If we match them, we're really on our way."

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