Displaying cricket's charm, that was Bert Sutcliffe

Big-time sports stars didn't often make it to Gore in rural Southland in the 1960s and 1970s.

The nearest first-class cricket ground was 100 miles away in Dunedin while the nearest big-time rugby games were an hour away in Invercargill.

But on one day in the late 1960s the young sports participants at Gore High School faced a dilemma, a dilemma probably matched up and down the country.

The Rothmans Sports Foundation road show was coming to town with a gallery of ambassadors to spread their sporting word among the 1000-plus students at the school.

The choice that was faced was athletics coaching by middle distance triple Olympic gold medallist Peter Snell, rugby by goal kicker supreme Don Clarke and cricket by Bert Sutcliffe, there may even have been a hockey player and a netball coach for the girls but that was in the days when no-one worried a hoot about women's sport.

For anyone with an interest in all three male sports it was a case of deciding who to go with.

For this particular student it was Sutcliffe who was given the preference. Memory denies me the knowledge of whether it was due to the fact that taking too long over the decision meant the numbers for Snell and Clarke were filled too quickly.

But even if that was the case there were no regrets.

An hour spent watching this small man, and he belied the reputation his statistics had built around him, doing his thing of checking batting stances, giving hints on the ways to play back and forward, how best to execute the cut shot, was an inspiration in itself.

Some of the boys he worked with would never pick up a bat again, but that didn't matter to this cricketing apostle. He was spreading the word and it didn't matter that players may never play the game competitively.

There was always the chance that somewhere along the way the cricketing bug would take hold.

In many cases it did. While Sutcliffe could have come back 100 times and coached the writer it would never have made much difference to his batting technique.

What he did do, however, was provide an early example of one of the game's finest assets, its charm. And while that may have been sullied in recent years by the effects of gambling, it is such a great asset it will surely prove a strength in the game's rehabilitation.

In later, more professional, meetings as journalist and interview subject, Sutcliffe could not have been more helpful.

Players of his era loved to talk about cricket, not only the way it was played in their time, but in the ways of the modern age.

The game has always been about the battle between ball and bat, it has never changed in that regard, no matter the participants, no matter the form of the game being played.

Bert Sutcliffe embodied all the virtues that have made those battles so memorable, and satisfying, for so many who have never graced the international or first-class or, even, senior grade stages.

And, if it is now politically incorrect to acknowledge the tobacco sponsorship which took sport to the far-flung reaches of New Zealand's hinterland, this is one non-smoker who remains ever grateful for the opportunity provided by Rothmans to have an appetite for cricket whetted by a legend.