Team - mates

Later in the same season, Nathan Astle announced the dress code for that particular day, as he was in charge of what we'd be wearing on various days for whatever was planned.

Nathan said for later that day the whole team were to meet in the hotel lobby on our stripy green and white team issue shirts. Heath turned up in his blue shirt.

Nathan has had his moments on tour as well. He's very keen on his sleep. Whenever he has some spare time if he can't be found it's a fair bit he'll be catching 40 winks somewhere.

After the final game of our tour to Zimbabwe in 1997, we planned a day trip to Victoria Falls. It meant getting up at about 5am to get to the airport to fly from Harare.

It was well worth the trip for one of the most spectacular sights in the world. However, Nathan and Shayne O'Connor won't remember much about it.

Neither of them are what you'd call big drinkers. However the night before they's been up late having a few quiet drinks, debating the events of the tour. It developed into a longer discussion than they had planned.

They were still awake when everyone assembled in the hotel lobby to go to the airport. When we got on the plane, all the other players went to sleep for the hour-long flight. When we arrived at Victoria Falls Nathan and Shayne had finally fallen asleep.

They slept on the bus on the trip to the Falls, saw the very top of the Falls, then went back to the hotel where we were due to have lunch. When we got back, there they were reclining on chairs at an outdoor table, fast asleep.

Nathan did much the same thing when we went to the Great Barrier Reef a couple of months later. Beautiful day, swimming, snorkelling, great food. Nathan slept through the whole day.

All that sleeping must be working as his record in the one-day cricket puts him amoung our best performers in the shortened form of the game.

By the end of the 1999 tour, he'd hit six hundreds, more than any other New Zealander, to go alongside five test-hundreds. He's collected his share of Man of the Match awards, but there was one he missed out on.

I won the player of the season award for the 97-98 season. I'd had a reasonably consistent all-round summer, while Nathan had a terrific home season. I think he expected to get the award. When I won is he was livid, although he was half - joking. He was disappointed because he thought he'd done enough to deserve it.

I remember him saying soon after: "Are you still driving that car of mine, Harry?" I told him I was, but he could hop in the passenger's seat if he wanted a lift.