Vettori clings to World Cup dream

Daniel Vettori once bowled 92.5 overs in a Test match, but now getting through 10 in a one-day international is a daunting prospect. However, the lure of playing in New Zealand's first home World Cup since the 1992 tournament, which he devoured as a 13-year-old viewer, has encouraged Vettori to push his body beyond the comfort zone of Twenty20 this summer.

Vettori was with his New Zealand team-mates in Melbourne on Tuesday, touring the MCG in the hope that they were familiarising themselves with the venue ahead of a possible World Cup final appearance. He will be 36 by the time that comes around and he has found his body struggling to get through long spells, so much so that he has all but ruled out playing Test cricket again.

His last first-class game was for Northern Districts in December and since then he has played nothing but T20, in both the Big Bash League and the Caribbean Premier League. His back has been an ongoing source of problems, but it is far from the only injury worry that has hampered Vettori in recent times.

"It's a bit of everything. You get to a certain age and things start to give up," Vettori told ESPNcricinfo. "I'm just going to have to manage it well and keep on top of my fitness through the summer if I'm going to have any hope of making the World Cup team.

"I don't have a lot of confidence in my body. I just have to get back into it. I've done a lot of the work in the off-season and I've still been able to bowl a reasonable amount through some T20 leagues, but 10 overs is a big step up and the length of time in the field as well. We played a game yesterday and ... here's hoping I can get through the rest of the one-day season."

Vettori has played 275 one-day internationals, the first of which came back in 1997 at the age of 18. He has been part of four World Cup squads and played in the semi-finals of the previous two events in the West Indies and India, but nothing will compare to the feeling of playing a World Cup at home, with New Zealand only needing to play in Australia if they reach the final.

That was also the case back in 1992, when Pakistan beat New Zealand in a semi-final in Auckland and went on to lift the trophy at the MCG four days later. The tournament meant a lot to New Zealand as a whole and Vettori watched it all as a teenager; now he and his team-mates hope they can leave the same sort of legacy for the country's young cricket fans during the 2015 World Cup.

"It's a huge incentive for most of the guys in the team," Vettori said. "It's great for the guys at the start of their careers to play a World Cup in New Zealand. There's only been one before and the guys remember it from '92, saw how much it affected the country and how well the team performed at the time. It meant so much to so many people and we're definitely hoping to replicate that.

"I have very fond memories, I remember watching all the games through the tournament and I remember how well we played and how well in particular Martin Crowe played, and Mark Greatbatch. There was the first-up win against Australia at Eden Park. All those are pretty lucid memories even now.

"The format really appealed back then. We played all the teams. To have a chance as a young cricketing fan to see all those players come to the country and see how the New Zealand guys performed against them - I know a lot of these guys here would love to leave that legacy."

To be part of that legacy, Vettori will have to prove his fitness over the coming summer. New Zealand's next one-day engagement is a home series against South Africa starting later this month, before playing Pakistan in the UAE in December, followed by home games against Sri Lanka and Pakistan shortly before the World Cup.

"I think Test cricket has probably passed me by," he said. "You never say never, but I think it's time to move on and concentrate on the one-day format. There are a couple of good young spinners in Ish Sodhi and Mark Craig, so I certainly don't want to get in the way of their development.

"Hopefully I'll make the World Cup - there's a long way to go before I'm actually selected in the team, and I'll have to perform the whole time. If I can perform and play well, that will be an accomplishment for me."