Dion Nash - Rock Steady
By Eric Young
From Player, August 2001

His career has become a tortured story of injury, of frustration and of promise unfulfilled. Yet he remains one of our best cricketers, a man responsible for some of our finest moments. So why is he already looking to a life beyond the boundary? Is it simply because he's always been a man outside the mould? Or is it just that these days Dion Nash has other mountains to climb?

The first brushstrokes of a Ruapehu pre-dawn paint the jagged ridges high above the Christiania Mountain Lodge. Inside, two prominent New Zealanders are laughing as they check their gear. Dion Nash and Graeme Dingle haven't been friends long but for longer than they have been climbing companions. And today they're pushing the envelope. Theirs is a relationship built on mutual respect and trust. Dingle will be on the end of a rope. A rope at the top of an ice wall that Nash must climb.

Dingle is one of New Zealand's most experienced adventurers, a man with climbing credits from the Andes to the Arctic. To him, this is the altitude equivalent of a walk in the park. For Nash, it's literally a step into the unknown and the early chill can't hide the nerves.

In just a few days, Nash will step off a plane to a 34-degree day in Sri Lanka Right now, the thought seems absurd. "I got into climbing quite accidentally," he confesses. "Even now, I don't know how. I don't even like being cold. I suppose it was different when I started, because I did it on the rock wall they have over in Birkenhead. It's a cool thing to do, you know. It feels pretty natural and the challenge is to get to the top of the wall. It doesn't get more basic than that, because you can always see the challenge ahead of you. But the other thing I suppose, is that when you get outdoors, you have to get used to the height factor and a little bit of fear. Indoors, it's different in that you always feel quite safe. But once you get outdoors, it can be, Well, it's quite high up here isn't it.' " High enough.

Today, we're two kilometres up the eastern side of Ruapehu, within sight of the lodge where Nash and Dingle laughed into the night, refreshing the friendship, swapping stories and planning the climb. The real question, though, is why a man with a history of injury, a man forced from the game in agony almost a year before, is on a mountain in the first place. You could moralise and suggest it's a supreme act of selfishness. You'd be wrong but we'll get to that in a moment. You could generalise and imagine it's just another challenge in a life known for them. Or you could empathise and simply accept that as Dion Nash gets older, he's finding things outside cricket to interest him. This one just happens to involve extreme height. Honestly, he doesn't care. He just loves the sport with the passion of the newly converted. "I already look at things now and think, 'Could I climb that?' Maybe one day I'll be in the outfield and looking into the stands, wondering how I could get into the rafters."

And for those who imagine this is an obsession that will one day pass, Nash - and Dingle - have bad news. It's only the beginning. Ruapehu's for practice. The ambition is Mt Cook "I guess it's the first thing I thought of when I first got into climbing. You know, I thought I'd quite like to climb to the top of New Zealand So that was something to introduce to the game, because we had to present ourselves with a goal. Then at least you're committed." Like right now. Dingle has disappeared, belaying a path up a wall that from here looks unimaginably steep. But that's the point. The time for climbing only indoors has passed. Here's the first major challenge. Nash follows Dingle's route and, about half an hour after his mentor, disappears into the sky.

Lord's 1994. Statistically, Dion Nash has enjoyed no finer moment in the game. Even without his maiden half century, the 11 wickets would have set him apart. As all-round performances go, it was one of the finest in test history. Certainly the best at Lord's. It was his fifth test. He'd managed only six wickets in his first four tests, so this wasn't an improvement, this was an arrival. Still, he woke the next morning to an empty feeling.

That test was fantastic for all sorts of reasons, because it allowed me to stamp my mark on the scene in many ways and from that point I never looked back. "But it's always been a bit of a funny one because we didn't win the test. We had a great night that night, but I look back on it now and really it just pales in comparison to when you win."

And it doesn't take long in Nash's company to discover that winning is central to who he is. For that and other reasons, he has far fonder memories of New Zealand's 1999 tour, during which they recovered from a test down to claim an extraordinary series 2-1. The pivotal moment of the tour came in the final test at the Oval. Chasing 246 to win the match and with it the series, England was cruising at 123-2. But cruise is a relative term in English cricket because danger always lurks just beneath the surface. This time they ran into a reef called Nash. In the space of 12 deliveries, he dispatched Atherton, Ramprakash and Stewart, and the locals sank to a somehow typical 83-run loss that cost them the series.

"We turned the corner in 1999,- Nash recalls. "On a personal level I have never felt happier than playing in that team at that time, because I know how hard we'd worked. And to me, getting those three quick wickets at the Oval is much, much more important than taking 11 wickets at Lord's." It's not as if he hasn't had the time to think about it. His last test was almost a year ago in Zimbabwe. It was a match the Kiwis won, but at the time Nash knew he was about to lose a more personal battle. His traitorous back had once more collapsed on him and, for the fifth time in his career, was forcing him home early from a tour. He was devastated, not just because of the impact it was about to have on his life, but because he thought he was smarter than that.

"When something so precious that you've taken for granted nearly gets taken away, it's a fairly big jolt. The first time I got injured was a huge learning curve. That was like a kick in the arse. But this time around it's been much more frustrating because I thought I'd learned those lessons and I didn't feel like I needed to learn them again. Sure, I've learned a lot about patience, but at the same time I'm disappointed because I've lost a couple of really good years of international cricket."

Adding to the frustration was that this wasn't even the same injury. He was first forced out of the game by a stress fracture down the left side of his spine. The pain this time was down the right. From the first twinges, he had a better than reasonable idea what it was and what it meant. "Oh, I knew," he admits. "I bowled the whole West Indies series with it and I just knew. I was taking more and more pain-killers and it just wasn't doing anything"

Graeme Dingle remembers very clearly the day he met Dion Nash. It was two years ago and the Kiwi cricketer had simply walked in off the street and into the downtown Auckland office of Project K "He just came in and asked me, 'How can I help the kids', and I really liked that." Project K began seven years ago as a dream and has developed into an extraordinary programme helping 13- to 15-year-olds discover one of the most important things they'll ever find. Themselves. It's not just worthy, it is vital. It has dominated Dingle and almost devoured him. He is its architect, its father figure and, in this shamelessly corporate world, its CEO.

"It's very easy for someone like me to say Project K takes up tpp much of my time and not make the effort to keep fit," he says. "But as we go through life, I think we need constant kicks in the arse to get on with things. That's what happened when Dion walked through the door. I've always been moved by enthusiasts and Dion's a real enthusiast, so it wasn't difficult at all to say, 'Let's go and do some climbing. And when someone like him comes along and wants to go climbing it's a great opportunity."

Dingle is literally old enough to be Nash's father, but do not mistake the relationship. They are friends first and climbing companions second. And don't for a moment imagine Nash is the only one on a voyage of discovery. Sure, he's learning how to climb at the feet of a master, but Dingle is learning to open up and his voice drops as he shares the one fear he has for his friend. "Maybe I haven't done this in the past because mountaineering is a dangerous game. If you think too much about friendship, it can wreck you. I've lost a lot of very good friends through mountaineering accidents. I started to think that this guy is so special that if anything happened to him through climbing it would be a real bummer."

Nash also remembers the day his life was changed. He went to offer his help and came out with two things he didn't expect. A new friend and a new passion. "It's been a nice freshener for me. I mean, everything I'm doing in climbing, I've already applied in cricket, or at least on different levels have tried to apply in cricket. Things like preparation, trying to do everything at high intensity, concentrating and trying to focus internally, yet trying to stay in control. Physically as well, you know. You get tired in both sports, but you have to stay tuned in if you're going to succeed."

Ruapehu's been kind. An hour or so after A Nash and Dingle disappeared up the ice wall, their silhouettes emerge from behind the ridge where we'd agreed to meet. Only then does the weather start to close in. The humour that never seems far from their conversation remains and laughter punctuates the silence as they make their way down a spur above the Whangaehu Glacier. This is Dingle's natural environment, but Nash is starting to look equally at home amid the moraine. If his back is bothering him, it doesn't show. His questions now aren't about the mountain or technique, they're about lunch. You just know, though, that he's developing an appetite of another kind. "Climbing has come along at the right time for me. It's given me an outlet that cricket had been providing physically and mentally. And it's eased the frustrations of not being able to play cricket. By no means has my motivation for cricket diminished. In fact, if anything climbing's chilled me out a wee bit and taught me to be a bit patient."

Dingle takes it a step further. Nash, he says, is a natural. "If someone's learning to climb ice, at the start the traditional thing to do is to not even put crampons on their feet and to go on very moderate slopes. One of the things you do not do is climb a frozen waterfall the first time you go ice climbing You just don't. But he does." The awe in his voice is unashamed and unmistakable. Here's Dingle, a man who's been around mountains for 40 of his 56 years, still able to be surprised. It happens almost every time they climb together. "I think he could be one of the best mountaineers around. He's very strong and strength is incredibly important," Dingle says. "Weeds like me are probably better suited to rock climbing, but Dion's got the build of a mountaineer. And I know that for Dion, just climbing Mt Cook wouldn't be enough. Everyone climbs Mt Cook I don't see him being satisfied with that. He knows that it's not the be-all and end-all. I think the great journeys are more appealing to him, but that's all in the future."

In the present is a cricket career that has often threatened, but never really managed to reach a level of consistency Nash would be comfortable with. He's still seven test wickets short of 100 and around 300 runs short of 1000. He has been an intentional cricketer for nearly nine years and in all that time has played just 31 tests. And just in case you were wondering yes, it bothers him. But then one of the things that sets Dion Nash apart is that he cares. About almost everything.

"It's quite a crazy time for New Zealand cricket really, because there've been a lot of things up in the air. The coach thing was one of them. We've got a number of players currently injured and at the same time we've got all these really exciting young players coming through who need good guidance. I'd really love to see New Zealand cricket back on track That's something that drives me, you know. Getting the New Zealand team back to where we were in England. We had a really rich period and I'd love to get us back to that, because I think we could be even better."

In the meantime, he has other mountains to climb. And he has a friend in high places. Very high places. "Rock climbing is statistically one of the safest sports possible," says Dingle. "People rarely hurt themselves because there's no contact. Cricket needs to understand something. Climbing is actually bloody good for his back. Playing cricket all the time is not."

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