Vettori relishing the chance for mid-winter action

Vettori: stint in county cricket something he always wanted to do

"Almost perfect" is Daniel Vettori's summation of the opportunity provided for his personal development in the five week-stint he will have for Nottinghamshire in English county cricket.

Vettori leaves on June 29 to take up the challenge, something he has always wanted to do.

Coming after a six-week break from New Zealand's international season which ended with success in the Sri Lankan tri-series, the five weeks will provide him with an unexpected chance to get plenty of overs under his belt, before returning home for another six-week break ahead of New Zealand's tour of India and Pakistan.

The left-arm spinner was frustrated by the pitch conditions in New Zealand over the summer. They denied him the sort of workload that has him at peak and it wasn't until the Test matches in Sri Lanka that he started to feel his best, something that was borne out with his quality bowling during the tri-series that followed.

"That hit home to me how much I do need the bowling workload. Sri Lanka gave me the confidence to get out there and bowl," he said.

It also allowed him to work on other aspects of his bowling, something that only comes with a reasonable amount of time at the bowling crease.

"It was mainly just tidying up a few routines as I was trying to find ways to get back to my best quicker."

"I was really happy with how I bowled in Sri Lanka. What was especially pleasing was that I bowled very few bad balls, was bowling well and I was getting wickets."

Since the back injury, suffered in the home series against Australia in early-2000, which was further exacerbated during the following summer in Africa, Vettori's workload has been carefully watched.

But by the time of the tour to Australia over the summer of 2001-02 Vettori felt during the Tests in Hobart, and especially in Perth, that he was bowling as well as he ever had.

"In the Perth Test I felt I was really in control. I took five-wicket bags in Hobart and Perth and round that time was probably the best I have felt in my bowling."

The first innings dismissals of Adam Gilchrist and Steve Waugh, in short order, still stand out as memorable wickets, while the failure of Ian Robinson to give Waugh out caught in the second innings was a vital blow to New Zealand winning the match.

Vettori added that the West Indies tour last year had also been an occasion for some good long spells after a lack of opportunity at home during the England series when two of the games were played on portable pitches that were of little value for a bowler of his type.

Not surprisingly, Vettori is at the head of the queue of those waiting for the portable pitch technology to reach the point where it is capable of delivering a pitch for all aspects of the game, something that hasn't happened so far.

In the England series, the first and third Tests were played on the portable pitches which suited faster bowlers and batsmen, especially in the first Test when the feat of repeating a double century to each side in successive years occurred.

Mathew Sinclair and Pakistan's Yousuf Youhana had done it a year before on a bone dry, featureless pitch at Jade Stadium while Graham Thorpe and Nathan Astle gave the record books a nudge on a much more sporting wicket, Astle especially while scoring Test cricket's fastest double century, off balls faced. But for bowlers of Vettori's ilk they were a short cut to extinction.

"I just hope they get the balance right for a good Test match one day," Vettori pondered.

Long absences from the bowling crease to ply his craft can affect the team dynamics and make it that much harder to be able to command the support he had previously enjoyed in the team's strategy.

While the home schedule for next year hasn't been finalised, it is likely that Test matches in the series against South Africa will involve games in Christchurch and Auckland. No wonder Vettori has his fingers crossed that the technology produces the goods.

In the meantime he knows there is a power of bowling ahead in the new summer. It starts with a tour of India, where the expectation is that the seamer-friendly conditions that plagued the Christmas series will be reciprocated with spinner's paradises to suit the home batsmen. But that has its own benefits for Vettori and he is looking forward to that prospect.

While the contest against India is always demanding for a spin bowler, Vettori is not phased. He enjoyed the challenge against the Sri Lankan batsmen and expects to thrive in the Indian conditions.

Then on the Test schedule it is back to New Zealand to play Pakistan and South Africa before the tour to England.

"We will be playing from September to July so it will be full on but I am really excited about it."

The challenge won't be any less against the South Africans. In flat conditions on their last tour in 1998-99 their batsmen made life a misery for the home side, one of whom was Vettori who bowled 42 overs on a glued first Test pitch in Auckland and took one for 120. In the third Test at Wellington his 54 overs in South Africa's first innings netted four for 153.

And then there is a second trip to England to try and repeat the series victory achieved during the 1999 summer.

"I definitely think we can do it again. The team we had in Sri Lanka was young, but experienced, and with some good players. If we can be at full-strength, and have Chris Cairns there, we will be capable of doing it again.

Cairns, whether batting or bowling had such a huge influence on the side and, as they are now both associated with Nottinghamshire county, and as long as Cairns has recovered from a broken finger, Vettori will have the chance to go to battle together with his national team-mate.

The prospects for Vettori, both during his county season, and the international summer ahead, are intriguing.