1 August 1999
Boy who is faced with a man's job at Old Trafford
The Electronic Telegraph
Scyld Berry feels that Vettori's 'shoot-out' with Tufnell
may decide the third Test
If New Zealand are to win at Old Trafford, and reduce England from the
status of laughing-stock to national derision, their chief instrument
will surely be Daniel Vettori. Young shoulders, long hair,
student-style glasses. And a wise old head.
England encountered Vettori for the first time in the winter of
1996-97. Aged 17, and in his home town of Hamilton, he made his
first-class debut against England for Northern Districts as their
third-choice left-arm spinner, and picked up Nasser Hussain as his
maiden wicket in a very tidy spell. Straight into the Test side he
went, New Zealand's youngest ever Test cricketer at 18 years 10 days,
and he picked up Hussain again for his maiden Test wicket as England
won by an innings in Wellington after New Zealand had stuck their neck
in the noose by batting first on a damp seamer.
For his next trick Vettori scored 54 runs and took five for 110 in the
final Test when England just squeezed home thanks to Mike Atherton's
second best match. With unwavering accuracy Vettori bowled 69 overs,
but without quite the variety and penetration to finish off England
and level the series (he had no spinner at the other end to help him,
either). If Atherton was the man of that match at Christchurch,
Vettori was the boy of it.
At this juncture most prodigies, or at any rate most English cricket
prodigies, would go off the rails, intoxicated by their own publicity
if not other substances, and take years to return if not disappear
altogether. Not Vettori, though, with that wise old head and steady
bespectacled gaze (he cannot wear lenses because of an accident when
he was knocked off his bike).
Two-and-a-half years on he has steadily progressed to become as good
as any left-arm orthodox spinner in the international game: the equal
of Phil Tufnell, in other words, as there are not any others of note
around (better endowed countries prefer the extra penetration of a
wrist-spinner). Old Trafford will therefore offer the two men a
shoot-out for the title of the world's best of their type.
Nature and nurture have caringly combined to keep Vettori on his
steady course. His grandfather came to New Zealand from the Dolomites
and worked with an immigrant's energy to establish his family. His
father works for Anchor, who dominate the Waikato's dairy-producing
countryside around Hamilton: in fact he is big in butter, so to speak,
as the company's finance director. At Hamilton's leading school Daniel
was always captain of his football and cricket teams, without being
aloof from the lads or resented.
When catapulted into Test cricket he was about to go to university in
Hamilton to study pharmacy, but if you were an 18-year-old given the
choice between going to university and being paid to tour Australia,
which would you choose? "I kept going on tour after tour, and I can't
see that I'll be able to take up the course in the next couple of
years," he says. "But it would be a shame not to go to university some
time."
In his fourth Test, by taking nine for 130 against Sri Lanka, he
out-bowled Muttiah Muralitharan to give New Zealand their first series
win for four years. In his 14th Test he reached his 50th Test wicket,
easily the youngest to do so at 19, after which his only barren period
came in a series against South Africa on flat home pitches. The
historical context against which Vettori has to labour is that only
one New Zealand spinner has taken 100 Test wickets, the off-breaker
John Bracewell.
Without a past-master to coach him, Vettori has had to learn those
variations to accompany his stock spinner and arm-ball. And at Lord's
he demonstrated how he could now use the width of the crease, adjust
his degree of turn and vary his trajectory.
"I've just learnt from bowling and from watching other bowlers around
the world, especially on television, and a lot of it has come from the
one-day game. In one-day cricket it has to be a different ball every
time, and while I don't enjoy it as much as Test cricket you can take
something from that."
He has a particular admiration for Pakistan's Saqlain Mushtaq, who
uses his fingers to bowl offbreaks and his wrist to bowl
top-spinners. "I'd love to do what Saqlain does but I've tried it in
the nets and can't do it yet." More realistic ambitions for the moment
are 100 Test wickets and to play 100 Tests, which no New Zealander has
yet done, by which time he will no doubt be captain.
His record at present runs parallel to Tufnell's as he has 63 wickets
from 21 Tests against Tufnell's 107 from 36, while both average 34 per
wicket. The differences are that Vettori is slower, usually 48 mph by
the speedometer, and has a higher trajectory which tempts the
straight-drive for six, while Tufnell bends forwards in the crease and
pushes it through more.
Another difference is that Vettori can bat (502 Test runs at 17) and
since a fruitless Edgbaston Test has worked the ball around with
irritating ease, culminating in his vital 50 at Lord's and a maiden
hundred at Leicester. "We haven't played a full-strength county side
yet and it's helped our batting by giving us time in the middle."
"People back home were pretty thrilled about our Test win and said
what a great week it was for New Zealand sport after the All Blacks
won as well. The old players have said some nice things too, like John
Wright sent us a telegram and Richard Hadlee was complimentary.
"But the main thing is that we're learning to keep our foot on the
opposition's throat. This team has played together for 2.5 years and
we've let winning situations go before, but now we know what to do,
which is an awareness of when the moment comes." A second win for New
Zealand at Old Trafford and it will be England who need the pharmacy.
Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)