Honour In Store For Daniel Vettori
Members of New Zealand’s BLACKCAPS will take a break from playing Pakistan in The National Bank ODI Series to honour their captain Daniel Vettori in a special tribute dinner in his home town of Hamilton this Wednesday, February 2.
The event, hosted by Northern Districts Cricket at Hamilton’s Tainui Novotel, celebrates Vettori’s milestone achievement of reaching 100 test match caps for New Zealand. Vettori is only the second New Zealand cricketer to have reached the special mark, which was achieved in Hamilton against Australia in 2010.
Long respected as a world-class off-spin bowler, exceptional sportsman and emissary of fair play, Vettori has been one of the key figures in New Zealand cricket ever since his extraordinary 1997 test debut against England. Back then he was a bespectacled teenager just days past his 18th birthday, practising an art form that many top spinners take a decade to master. The youngest test player ever to have been picked for New Zealand, he has gone on to become one of the most accomplished and artful players to have captained the BLACKCAPS.
Vettori’s predecessor Stephen Fleming, who captained New Zealand for a decade, is the only other New Zealand test centurion. Fleming played 111 test matches for the BLACKCAPS, a mark 32-year-old Vettori is likely to overtake as he continues his career beyond the 2011 ICC World Cup. Vettori, who was New Zealand’s Cricketer of the Year in both 2009 and 2010, has now played 105 test matches, with 10 test matches scheduled for New Zealand in the 2011/2012 season.
The Daniel Vettori 100th Test Match Celebration Dinner takes place from 6pm on February 2, the eve of the BLACKCAPS’ fifth One-Day International against Pakistan, and will feature a guest panel comprised of the man himself and BLACKCAPS team-mates including Scott Styris and Tim Southee, silent and live auctions and a five-star, three-course dinner. Tickets at $99+GST are available from Experience Group, www.experiencegroup.co.nz
Daniel Vettori Quick Facts:
• February 6, 2011 marks 14 years representing New Zealand at cricket
• Test debut v England at Wellington, Waitangi Day 1997
• All-time youngest player selected for New Zealand test team at 18 years, 10 days
• Has played 105 test matches, comprising 104 for New Zealand and one for the FICA World XI, making him New Zealand's second most-capped player
• 4167 test runs at an average of 30.19, including six hundreds and 22 fifties, highest score 140, the fifth highest test aggregate of any New Zealander
• The only New Zealander to have achieved the double of 300 test wickets and 4000 test runs
• 345 test wickets, including 19 five-wicket bags and three 10-wicket bags
• Career-best test bowling performance of 12/149 v Australia in 1999/2000 season
• Sir Richard Hadlee (431) is the only other New Zealander to have taken more than 300 test wickets
• 57 test catches places him fifth on the New Zealand all-time list
• 265 ODIs and 28 T20is, including 7 four-wicket bags and two five-wickets bags in ODIs
• His 277 ODI wickets are a New Zealand record
• T20i batting strike rate of 109.35 and ODI batting strike rate of 81.42
• Four ODI fifties in the lower order with a high score of 83
• BLACKCAPS captain since 2007
• Counts his career highlights as his first test century (137 not out v Pakistan at Hamilton, 2003); taking seven wickets against Australia in the first test at Eden Park in 2000, for a match double of 5/62 and 7/87; and winning a test series with the team in England in 1999, an historic first for the BLACKCAPS
• Believes the single most important attribute of a captain is to lead with your own performance
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