Cricket's New Leader of the Pack
By Yvonne Martin
From The New Zealander, Wednesday, March 10, 1999

Stand-in Black Caps captain Dion Nash has a down-home appeal that makes him a big hit on and off the pitch.

He's been called the Leonardo DiCaprio of New Zealand cricket. With a mop of dark curls barely restrained by his black cap, thick eyelashes and steely blue eyes, Dion Nash is a wonder with both female and male cricket fans.

Though he doesn't have the gazelle-like elegance of Daniel Vettori or the tall splendour of Simon Doull, he has athleticism and appealing, old-fashioned, boy-next-door homeliness.

You can easily imagine 27-year-old Nash having a game of street cricket with the kids who hang around his home in Royal Oak, Auckland, or staying behind after a big test on autograph duties, as he is known to do.

For the cricket purists who see beyond his rugged good looks, Nash has the necessary killer instinct on the field and the ability to make a name for himself as captain while Stephen Fleming recovers from groin tendon surgery. Not that Nash considers himself a sex symbol. Far from it.

That title, he is happy to say, belongs to more suave and urbane team members such as the modelish Vettori, Adam Parore, and the injured Chris Cairns. They are more likely to get the fan mail, flowers, and the eye from female admirers than Nash, he says.

"It's pretty quiet," he says. "I don't think anyone else realises I'm a sex symbol either. Adam, Cairns, and Dan are the ones. I think Dan's taken that title over. He seems to be the hot one at the moment. Adam's on the slippery slope."

Nash's homegrown down-to-earthness probably stems from his early beginnings in the New Zealand's kumara capital Dargaville, north of Auckland.

It was there where he and the other six and seven-year-old kids on the block learned about his ultra-competitiveness in games that often ended in emotional outbursts.

"I think I might even have been considered a bad sport in my early days. It developed in the backyard playing family test matches and things like that," he says.

Nash went on to inspire the Dargaville High School First XI as captain, before leaving for his last school year at Auckland Boys Grammar. He also skippered the Northern conference side, gaining vital skills he has put to good use with the Black Caps.

Nash made his New Zealand debut in 1992 as an Otago player. But it was a stunning performance in a test match in June 1994- he took 10 wickets and scored a half-century- that thrust Nash into the international limelight.

He was soon grabbed by Middlesex to play English county cricket. It was a huge break for 22-year-old Nash, but it also brought unprecedented pressure when he was sidelined with a back injury.

It halted his promising international career, forced him out of his contract with Middlesex and out of cricket for 18 months. The British media pounced, suggesting that, with no proof of injury such as a broken bone or an operation scar, Nash's problem could have been in his head, rather than his back- criticism that still grates.

"That did hurt, actually, but I knew it wasn't the case. When you don't know what your future is yourself and you hear things like that, it does get to you.

"I loved the opportunity I got at Middlesex. It was certainly a learning experience for me and it was probably a real shame that I couldn't fulfil my second year because that's probably when it would have borne fruit for both me and Middlesex as well.

"There is a little nagging thought that one day I'll go back and set things right, but at the end of the day, test cricket and one-day cricket for New Zealand is what I want to do."

Another setback was becoming embroiled in the South African dope-smoking scandal in 1995. Nash, along with Fleming and Matthew Hart, admitted smoking dope at an evening in Paarl during the tour and took the punishment, a fine and suspension.

But there were no lasting effects on his career, and he can now look back and laugh. "I think everyone realises I was a bit stupid at the time. I don't think it helps having a name that rhymes with hash."

Nash bats off suggestions his aggressive leadership style would make him an ideal permanent one-day captain. He is full of praise for Fleming and cannot see any gains in dual roles.

"Flem's done a great job to get us to where we are. To be honest, it's not something I want to do, in terms of splitting up the team. I'm just filling his boots and trying to take on the role."

Nash is coy when it comes to talking about his private life, shared with long-time girlfriend Shelley.

She is cricket literate- has to be- but not a fanatic. "I don't know if she's cricket mad- she is probably mad at cricket most of the time," says Nash.

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