"I feel privileged to have kept to Dan Vettori in every test he's played, because Daniel's a rock star. To watch him emerge from a 17-year-old, greasy-faced guy who no one had seen before to one of the best three finger spinners in the world has been sensational. People in this country don't appreciate how good he is and he has made me three times the player in the process of making himself a great player. After keeping to him for a couple of seasons, I began to know what be was going to bowl before he bowled it, from picking up differences in his delivery stride that no one else could see. When he bowls a variation, his arm or hips might be an inch this way or that. I sense it's different and have alarm bells going off a fraction before he lets it go.

"If I just went out there with a spinner I'd never seen before and tried to keep wicket to him, there's no way I could keep as well as I do in a test match to Daniel, because I'm two steps ahead of Daniel before he's even done it. Having a relationship with great players - you learn from it.

"Daniel was a huge loss for us this summer. You can pick two guys to replace Cairnsey, but Daniel just leaves a massive hole. But we're looking forward to our little mate coming back. We just wish he'd hurry up."