Daniel Vettori

Daniel Vettori

Daniel Luca Vettori, ONZM (born 27 January 1979) is a cricketer for the New Zealand cricket team. He is the eighth player in Test history to take 300 wickets and score 3,000 runs. He is the youngest player to have represented New Zealand in Test cricket, having made his debut in 1996–97 at the age of 18, and New Zealand's most-capped test cricketer with 112 caps. Vettori is a bowling all-rounder who bowls slow left-arm orthodox spin; he is known for his accuracy, flight and guile rather than prodigious turn. He has a Test batting average of around 30 making him one of the more consistent and better batsmen in the New Zealand cricket team. In the fourth season of Indian Premier League, he was contracted by Royal Challengers Bangalore for US$550,000. He is currently the captain of the Royal Challengers Bangalore team. Vettori captained New Zealand between 2007 and 2011.

He was born in Auckland and brought up in Hamilton, attending Marian School and later St. Paul's Collegiate School. When available, he plays provincial cricket for Northern Districts and is also an international member of Indian Premier League team the Royal Challengers Bangalore. Vettori also represents the Brisbane Heat in the Big Bash League. He is among a very small minority of international sports stars to wear prescription spectacles while playing sport and is the first cricketer of Italian descent to represent New Zealand.