Vettori puts country first
Daniel Vettori has no time for jet-lag as he embarks on an “incredibly important” mission for New Zealand - barely a day after concluding his Indian Premier League business several thousand miles away.
The Kiwi captain took part in his final IPL match on Wednesday night, was whisked to the airport and arrived at Heathrow at 7am on Thursday morning.
With him was his vice-captain Brendon McCullum - and the pair have since taken part in net practice, conducted a press conference and are currently preparing mind and body to be ready for an 11am start to New Zealand’s tour match against Essex, which starts on Friday morning.
It is a hectic and unforgiving schedule even by modern cricket standards. But Vettori, due to be reunited with the remainder of New Zealand’s IPL contingent on Thursday - with a full squad available for selection at Chelmsford - appears unfazed, remarkably alert and even ready with a handy quip.
“We left five minutes after the game,” he said of last night’s dash for the plane.
“It was tight. But our [franchise] owners own the airport - so things got through pretty quickly!”
Vettori has been an easy convert to the IPL - for which he and others are to be more than handsomely rewarded - but he maintains the chance to lead New Zealand to a Test series win in England still stands head and shoulders above all else.
“There are no mixed feelings,” he said about having to cut short his first IPL adventure to help his country in what remains of their short preparations for the start of the first npower Test at Lord’s on May 15.
“My commitment was always to New Zealand Cricket, and this Test series is vitally important to us.
“We knew right from the start we’d only be there (in India) for a certain amount of games and that this Test series would take priority.”
Vettori concedes some of his compatriots may have minor qualms - but for him the job of captaincy means he can afford none.
Kiwi wicketkeeper Brendon McCullum accompanied Vettori “With some of the guys, if you asked them sincerely they might have wanted to sneak another couple of games,” he admitted.
“But for me personally, I wanted to get over here to start our Test tour - because it is important we start well in the warm-up games.
“Notoriously, we’re not very good in warm-up games - particularly in England - so we need to make sure from tomorrow we play the right way and put some performances on the board.”
Vettori notes that - thanks to rain in Arundel and then Canterbury - he has missed precious little cricket in the Kiwis’ first two tour matches, against the MCC and then Kent.
“We haven’t missed any cricket time, just a little bit of time spent together,” he pointed out - before making it clear Test victory this summer will rank ahead of any similar success in IPL.
Asked to choose between the two, there was no hesitation.
“The Test series against England,” he said.
“It’s incredibly important to us - and something we have not achieved all that often over here.”
New Zealand have presented a united front ever since it was announced some of their number would stop off in India before joining their fellow tourists.
“We had quite in-depth discussions before it happened, and if the team hadn’t wanted it to happen it never would have,” Vettori reported.
“Our priority is with New Zealand Cricket, but we hope that window is created so we can give full attention to IPL at the right time.”
New Zealand will have the opportunity against a strong Essex team to put a dent in the confidence of one of England’s key men, opener Alastair Cook.
New Zealand (from): Daniel Vettori (c), Peter Fulton, Gareth Hopkins (wk), James Marshall, Michael Mason, Iain O’Brien, Jeetan Patel, Tim Southee, Brendon McCullum, Daniel Flynn, Jamie How, Chris Martin, Kyle Mills, Jacob Oram, Aaron Redmond, Ross Taylor.
Daniel Vettori © Getty Images
