When all is said and done
Tributes to Dion Nash’s career and the contribution
he had made to New Zealand Cricket began to flow from the
moment he announced his retirement from the game.
New Zealand Cricket’s Chief Executive Officer, Martin
Snedden, was quick to point out how much Nash would be missed
my his team-mates and Black Caps supporters. "Dion has
always given a 100 per cent effort. He is the ultimate competitor
and motivated players around him. He is a talented player
and a gifted leader and it is a great shame that injury prevented
him from making a fuller contribution to international cricket,"
said Snedden.
Auckland Cricket’s CEO, Lindsay Crocker, spoke of the
respect Nash commanded from all parties involved in the game.
"Dion goes from the game with a respect from most of
his team-mates, opposition players and officials that few
can match. Long after the statistics become less important
and memories of him playing fade, this respect will serve
him well in future. That to me is the most important and lasting
legacy of an impressive, if interrupted, career," he
said.
Lynn McConnell emphasised Nash’s famous attitude, which
set him apart from most: "His departure leaves New Zealand
weaker in the ‘guts’ department because there was
no-one who personified more the attributes and benefits of
determination than the bowling all-rounder from Northland."
Still, there was a feeling that Nash had finished his cricketing
career without fulfilling his potential, though not —
as McConnell had suggested of Adam Parore, who had retired
just a few weeks earlier — through any fault of his own,
but because of the damage a seemingly-endless series on injuries
had wrought on Nash’s career.
"A career that could have been so much better,"
was the epithet Richard Boock chose to describe Nash’s
decade in international cricket. "Nash, considered one
of the country's most intense competitors over the past decade,"
Boock wrote in The New Zealand Herald, "was also
one of the unluckiest in terms of injury, and ended up missing
more test matches (45) than he played (32)."
The day after Nash made his announcement, Black Caps coach
Dennis Aberhardt said he hoped Nash’s attitude and experience
would not be lost to the game following the all-rounder’s
retirement. "He’s a real competitor, a great role
model with how he got the best out of himself. He was very
aggressive, he played it hard and he expected others to play
the same way. He’s got a lot to offer young cricketers
with his knowledge and experience. I hope he will share that
with the younger guys."
Meanwhile, Dion Nash was looking forwards. "For me
personally it’s the right thing, it’s the right
time in my life to be moving on," Nash said following
his retirement. His immediate plans include international
travel with his fiancee, Bernice Mene, whom he intends to
marry in February 2003, and finishing the house he is building
on Waiheke Island. Next year, Nash will undertake a postgraduate
diploma in mentoring by correspondence with Melbourne University.
Beyond that, Nash is not sure what he will be doing in the
future, but he is enthusiastic about the opportunities open
to him, which may take him into the business world, or into
a mentor-type role where he can pass on the enormous experience
he has acquired from ten years of international cricket. For
the time being, lthough Nash has hung up his Black Cap, he
has not severed all ties with New Zealand cricket, and will
be keeping in touch with the game through his role in the
New Zealand Player’s Association, of which he became
a founding representative in 2001. And Nash has not ruled
out a role in mentoring or coaching, a few years down the
track. Aberhardt may get his wish, in time.
*
It is a sad but thought-provoking statistic, to which Boock
draws attention. Even during the second phase of his career,
during which Nash played some of the best cricket of his life
and was never dropped from the Test team, he missed a frightening
number of games. Nash played 19 Tests between his first major
comeback in January 1998 and his retirement in May 2002, including
all 12 Tests during the 1999 calendar year, but missed 18
others through injury. Nash’s last two Tests were more
than a year apart, and he was injured in both. Yet, when injury
did permit Nash to play a consistent part in the New Zealand
team, he played a vital role. Dion Nash’s injury-plagued
career truly begs the question, what would he have achieved
had injuries not played so profound a role? Conceivably, he
could have played twice as many Tests by the time he retired
and taken at least 200 wickets. If that were the case, and
with Chris Cairns still on 197, Nash would have become the
only New Zealand bowler other than Richard Hadlee to take
200 Test wickets. He was good enough.
The fact remains, however, that injury did not allow Nash
even to come close. Instead, he announced his retirement from
all cricket in May 2002, six months short of the 10-year anniversary
of his international debut. Hopefully, Nash’s cricketing
career can be remembered for what he did, rather than what
injury, tragically, prevented him from doing. In 32 Tests
he scored 729 runs and took 93 wickets, finishing frustratingly
short of the 100-wicket milestone. In 81 One-Day Internationals
he took 84 wickets and scored 624 runs. Dion Nash will be
remembered for his all-round talent, his aggressive attitude,
his leadership and, above all, for the fighting spirit which,
time and again, enabled him to overcome adversity and achieve
as much as he did for New Zealand Cricket.
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