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Profile - Dion Joseph Nash
(May 8, 2002)

Born: Auckland, November 20, 1971

All-rounder: Right hand batsman, right-arm medium-fast bowler

Major teams: New Zealand, Northern Districts, Otago, Middlesex, Auckland.

See also:

• The Spirit: a review of Dion Nash's cricketing career
• Statistics

Dion Nash's cricketing career begs the question: what would he have achieved had injury not played so profound a role?

Nash announced his retirement from all cricket in May 2002 after suffering the last in a long line of injuries from which he finally lacked the motivation to overcome. He ended his Test career on 93 wickets, frustratingly short of the 100 wicket / 1000 run double that was his goal. However Nash's statistics do not tell the full story of a cricket career which was severely inhibited by injury, yet sometimes nothing short of brilliant. It is testimony both to Dion Nash's talent as a cricketer and to his strength of character that he was able to achieve as much as he did in ten years which saw him sit out more matches than he played.

Looking back into 'history', Dion Nash was a successful all-rounder at New Zealand Youth level before making the national side with only four First Class games behind him. His beginnings in international cricket were quiet and somewhat stop-and-start, but in 1994 he accompanied the New Zealand Test side to England - and the rest is history. In the Second Test, Nash became the only man ever to score a half-century and take 10 wickets (11 in total) in a Test match at Lords. Bad light prevented Nash from finishing the job and bowling New Zealand to their first Test victory at "the home of cricket" (that was to come later) but he did pick up the Man of the Match and New Zealand Man of the Series awards. He also earned himself a contract with county Middlesex, where he went in 1995. New Zealand, the Wisden Almanack stated, "had discovered a champion of the future".

It wasn't quite to be, at least not yet. In 1995, the "champion" earned himself a suspension as one of three New Zealand cricketers to admit smoking marijuana in Paarl, South Africa, although the confession redounded to his credit. Worse problems than run-ins with team management lay around the corner, however. While touring the West Indies in 1996, Nash began to experience back pain which restricted him to the one-day component of the tour. He nonetheless returned to Middlesex for a second season, but his back injury quickly forced the termination of his contract. Nash flew home and attracted criticism from the British press who assumed, as scans had revealed nothing, that Nash's problem was in his mind. It was only later, back in New Zealand, that further tests revealed a stress fracture and prolapsing disc in Nash's lower back.

The injury, essentially the result of poor management, put Nash out of international cricket for two years. The consensus was that he would never bowl again. Despite hard times and thoughts of giving up, however, Nash worked hard - and credits Pilates strengthening techniques with his recovery. He was also forced to modify his bowling action and lost some pace in the process. But there was one benefit - his improved batsmanship - to stem from his enforced break from bowling. Come the 1997-1998 domestic season, Nash was a strong all-round performer for Northern Districts. His determination and all-round ability had a marked impact on his team which strongly impressed his team mates.

It was hoped that Nash would bring that spirit to the New Zealand side when he was selected for the one-day tri-series in Australia. He immediately attracted attention in his first game back in the international arena: chasing South Africa's 302 in Brisbane (January 9, 1998), Nash scored 38 before he was caught attempting the last-ball boundary that would have won the game. New Zealand fell two runs short that night, but as the year wore on, Nash came to be called "the comeback success story of New Zealand Cricket".

Nash was an important wicket-taker in the 1998 home series against Zimbabwe, and that year posted his best figures bowling in an ODI (4/38) as well as displaying the dividends of extra work on his batting. Nash experienced further back troubles in the middle of the year and missed the Wills Mini World Cup and Commonwealth Games. He was a surprise selection to play India in December 1998 but, during the 1998-1999 home season, Nash was to reach new heights. The Indian bowlers could not break through his defences in the Tests, where - several times - he held together the Kiwi batting, and posted his highest Test score of 89 not out. When Stephen Fleming was injured, Nash successfully took over over the captaincy to tie the one-day series with India, then lead New Zealand into the Tests and first ODIs against South Africa. In one year, Nash had made a Lazarus-like return few thought possible and gone on to captain his country.

In 1999, Nash consolidated his position in as a senior player and Vice Captain to Stephen Fleming. He was selected for every game of the 1999 Cricket World Cup in England, in which New Zealand made the semi-finals. He opened the bowling alongside Geoff Allott, and while he took only three wickets, he bowled economically, performed solidly low in the troubled batting order, and his athletic and reliable fielding was described as some of the best in the tournament. And his role as a 'foil' for Geoff Allott, teasing the edge of the bat, creating pressure and wickets at the other end, was perhaps underestimated.

In the following series of four Tests against England, Nash's performance revived talk of his unprecedented success in 1994; in 1999, Nash finished the 1st and 2nd highest New Zealand wicket-taker in First Class and Test matches respectively, as well as topping the First Class batting averages. His stunning performance when he led the side against Hampshire and claimed a First Class career best of 7/39, an unbeaten century and a half-century, was an outstanding demonstration of Nash's all-round ability. Most importantly, Nash took vital wickets in New Zealand's series victory over England, performing strongly at Lords, and his 3 wickets in 12 balls on Day Four of the final Oval Test brought about the English capitulation. Nash shared the honours with top-performer Chris Cairns, for both the 'icing on the cake' after a season which earned them the shared title Shell Cricket Almanack Players of the Year. The two of them, opening the bowling together, seemed to take New Zealand cricket to new levels and Nash was later to identify the 1999 tour of England as the highlight of his cricket career.

Nash also performed strongly when the Black Caps toured India in 1999, including his career-best Test wicket haul of 6/27 in the First Test and a responsible 41* to shore-up New Zealand's batting in the Second. But Nash managed just one over in the one-day series that followed before another back injury - a prolapsing disc - forced his return to New Zealand. It was a race to be fit for New Zealand's home season, but Nash made it back and played well in the two Tests against the West Indies. He was playing through pain, however, and cannot have been surprised when yet another back injury kept him out of the fifth one-day match and the entire Australian series. The diagnosis, again, was stress fractures, and Nash faced yet another huge physical and mental challenge.

The Second Test against Zimbabwe, nine months later, was the next time Nash played for New Zealand. Nash's back was not fully healed, his selection was partly forced by the large number of injuries affecting the team at that time. In that game he made 62 and, with Chris Cairns, bettered the record 8th wicket partnership Nash had set with Daniel Vettori in 1998. But on Day Five he experienced back soreness, a flare-up of the two stress fractures in his lower back. After just one Test, Nash's tour - and, it seemed, possibly his international cricketing career - was effectively over. Once more Nash returned to New Zealand, but not before he helped out his injury-stricken team by agreeing to play a one-day match as a batsman only.

As in 1996-1997, many commentators remarked that Dion Nash would never play for New Zealand again. Nash must have been devastated and confuse. His schemes in the months after returning from Zimbabwe ranged from reinventing himself as a batsman or off-spinner to making a full return to pace bowling at international level. Meanwhile, he played for his domestic side, Auckland, and was promoted to the captaincy in early 2001. Initially Nash played as a batsman only, but later in the season he began to bowl a few short, tentative spells and finished with 5 wickets in the Shell Trophy. When the season ended, Nash made his decision and announced in Autumn that he would give cricket "one last shot".

Nash was recalled in the New Zealand side to play the one-day tri-series in Sri Lanka, 2001. His carefully-managed comeback limited the number of matches he played and overs he bowled, but he played quite well, including figures of 3/13 in his first game back and a new highest one-day score (42) which earned him the Man of the Match award. Perhaps more significantly, Nash's back did not trouble him in Sri Lanka and he came through the series unscathed. He was subsequently selected for the one-day leg of New Zealand's tour to Pakistan, however the series was ultimately cancelled.

In October 2002, Nash flew to Australia with the New Zealand Test squad with a mandate to earn his Test recall. He did so with some promising performances in the warm-up matches, but meanwhile suffered an abdominal strain. He was passed fit to play the First Test in Brisbane where he aggravated the injury while diving in the outfield. Nash was ruled out of the remainder of the Test series with an abdominal tear and without taking a wicket. His most significant contribution to that Test - which was to be his last - was his innings of 25* which ensured New Zealand avoided the follow-on.

Once again, Nash flew home early but his brief reunion with the Black Caps had been enough to make him keen for a comeback. Nash was bowling again for Auckland by December, but his goal - to return for the one-day tri-series in Australia - was threatened when he received a 13-day suspension for on-field misbehaviour. Notwithstanding the disciplinary action and his lack of match practice, Nash was selected in the one-day side but he later condemned the domestic ban. Nash felt that he had been unfairly subjected to harsh exemplary punishment because of his high status, and that the suspension helped cause his subsequent injury in Australia because it denied him the practice needed to reach full match-fitness.

It seems that Nash was not fully fit when he arrived in Australia and he suffered an injury in the first warm-up match which saw him miss the first half of the VB Series. When he did play, however, Nash bowled well and improved each game, leading to one of the finest spells of his one-day career. In Perth, Nash cut through the formidable South African top order with a brilliant opening spell of 3/20 off seven overs, with good line and length and movement both ways. It was a text-book example of pace bowling on the WACA wicket and incontrovertible proof of how good a bowler Dion Nash could be, fitness permitting. The glory did not last long however. The Black Caps lost the match and, in the First Final, they lost Dion Nash.

Ironically, it was a batting mishap rather than yet another back injury that ultimately concluded Dion Nash's cricket career. Nash stumbled while avoiding being run-out during the Melbourne final and suffered an abdominal strain which limited him to one over when New Zealand fielded and kept him out of the Second Final. Nash was expected to recover in time to take part in the home series against England before he was revealed to have sustained a hip capsule injury in Melbourne. The injury was serious and the necessary rehabilitation period was protracted. In the end, Nash decided he no longer had the motivation necessary to overcome the injury, only to risk being hurt again. Instead, Nash said, he was ready to move on to other things: travel, marriage, study, and perhaps business or mentoring.

Dion Nash announced his retirement from all cricket on 2 May 2002, six months short of the 10-year anniversary of his international debut. In 32 Tests he took 93 wickets and scored 729 runs. In 81 One-Day Internationals he took 84 wickets and scored 624 runs. He will be remembered for his all-round talent, his aggressive attitude, his leadership and - above all - the fighting spirit which made him a true match-winner for New Zealand.

[Dion Nash's International Career Statistics]

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