Vettori Made Honorary Hamilton Ambassador

Vettori Made Honorary Hamilton Ambassador

Hamilton City Council will confer an Honorary Ambassadorship on former international cricketer Daniel Vettori.

Council unanimously approved the honour today, but the ceremony will not be held until August, when Vettori returns to New Zealand from India.

Former New Zealand captain Vettori retired from all forms of cricket after the final of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 in Melbourne in March.

Vettori becomes the third Honorary Ambassador after Archbishop Sir David Moxon, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Representative at The Holy See, and Warren Gatland, the former Waikato rugby player and current coach of Wales.

“Hamilton is immensely proud of Daniel – he has become one of the city’s most successful, and respected international athletes,” Mayor Julie Hardaker says.

“When he retired in March, the plaudits from across the cricket world reflected a cricketer and a man held in the highest regard in his sport. He has had a wonderful career and his hometown fans have enjoyed watching his success. Local cricket fans adore him.”

Born in Auckland in January 1979, Vettori moved to Hamilton with his family, attending Marian Catholic School and then St Paul’s Collegiate. He won a scholarship to study health sciences at the University of Waikato, but put tertiary education on hold due to his promising cricket career.

Vettori’s international career began as an 18-year-old Hamilton schoolboy, in 1997, when he was plucked from relative obscurity – after just two First Class games for Northern Districts – to play in a Test series against England. He was New Zealand’s youngest ever international cricketer.

The left-arm spinner went on to play 112 Test matches for New Zealand, a national record, and he is one of only three Test cricketers to claim more than 300 wickets and score more than 4000 runs. His 361 Test wickets place him the second on the New Zealand all-time Test wicket takers list, behind Sir Richard Hadlee.

His 100th Test match was against Australia on Hamilton’s Seddon Park, his home ground at elite level, with his family in attendance. Prior to this match, he was presented with life membership of Hamilton Star University Cricket Club, who he played for in the 2013-2014 season while returning from injury.

He played 34 T20 Internationals and 294 One Day Internationals, captained New Zealand in all three forms of the game, returning to Test cricket in 2014 for one final match, against Pakistan.

His career culminated at the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, including appearing at Seddon Park in New Zealand’s match against Bangladesh and being selected in the ICC’s team of the tournament following a series of crucial contributions in New Zealand’s campaign.

In provincial cricket, he has only played for three teams – the Northern Knights in New Zealand domestic First Class cricket, and English counties Warwickshire and Nottinghamshire. Earlier this year he became head coach of Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League, following four seasons as a player with the team, one of them as captain.

As well as being named in the International Cricket Council’s World XIs, Vettori has been the recipient of the organisation’s Spirit of Cricket Award on four occasions – once as a member of the New Zealand team (2004), twice as captain of New Zealand (2009, 2010), and once individually (2012).

Vettori was made an Officer of the Order of New Zealand Merit in 2011, for services to cricket, and in the same year he received an honorary sports Masters Degree from Wintec.

“Those awards speak to Daniel’s excellence on the field, his respectful and admirable approach to the game and those involved, and his overall character,” Mayor Hardaker says.

“He is one of Hamilton’s finest.”

ENDS

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