Nash bowled over by his new TV role

Former Black Cap Dion Nash has joined the growing ranks of New Zealand sports stars taking up jobs in television. He has been recruited as a reporter in the new TV3 sports magazine show Sportzah! presented by Oscar Kightley and Nathan Rarere.

After years of being interviewed about his cricketing career, Dion is having to adjust to being interviewer.

He says there were plenty of times he did not want to have to face the cameras but it was all in a day's work for a national sports representative.

Knowing how he felt then, he says, "I wondered how I would react on the other side of the microphone and so far it's been quite good.

"I think it might help in having an understanding of how the sportsman's mind works. It's a difficult job being a good reporter, I think, and having an ability to draw information from some sportspeople is not easy."

Luckily for him, Sportzah! does not even pretend to be an in-depth, investigative sports magazine show. Instead it takes upon itself the role of national cheerleader, with it's stated brief "to champion New Zealand sports people...making sure the rest of the country is keep up-to-date with just how good Kiwi sports people really are."

It also aims to be unashamedly positive in attitude, with no room for cynicism or criticism.

Clearly Dion and his fellow reporters won't be expected to ask any tough questions.

Nor does his new role as a TV personality singal a budding career as a cricket commentator, although he wouldn't rule it out.

"Sometimes I think it's important to have a break from a sport that you've been intimately involved in," he says. "I think you need to create a distance between yourself and that sport and get a bit of perspective on it."

[Articles]