New Zealand wicketkeeper BJ Watling, who announced retirement after the upcoming tour of England, has thanked his former captain Daniel Vettori for a piece of life-changing advice while he was in his early days in international cricket
Talking to the Blackcaps social media team in a video uploaded on their official Twitter handle, Watling said, “Dan [Vettori] told me once, ‘Make sure you don’t just be happy with playing one or two Tests, make a career out of it’. From then on, I was immensely focused to try and have a decent career.”
The Northern Districts player has now made a more than decent career, making 3777 runs in 71 Tests. Reminiscing about the time when he made his debut, Watling said, “I think if you had told me after my first few Test matches when I was 24 or something that I was gonna play 70 odd test matches and make the World Test Championship Final, I would have said, ‘Yeah, I would take that’ probably it would have been like a dream.”
Watling, who has most dismissals and runs for Kiwi wicketkeeper-batsman, making him the greatest Blackcaps wicketkeeper to have ever taken the gloves, feels that winning the WTC Final would be the icing on the cake for his career.
“It’s a good feeling to be able to play this long and I would look forward to playing three more Test matches. It would be really lovely to win a final,” said the 35-year-old.