"I wanted to uphold that tradition and force the door open to enable other New Zealanders to experience playing with some of the world's best cricketers week-in, week-out."
His sole test came in the 2002 victory against England at Eden Park when he took six wickets at 17.50. He was categorised as a limited-overs player thereafter. He played 42 one-day and four Twenty20 internationals for New Zealand.
"I thought I was heading in the right direction as a test bowler because I always preferred the longer format," he said. "I would love to have played more tests. I haven't, but it's not something worth crying over. The opportunity's gone.
"I suppose playing day-in, day-out over here could get monotonous but you play different overseas players every year and I don't play T20s or one-dayers any more, so I'm refreshed for the four-dayers.
"I joined Notts at a time when I could easily have moved on to do something else, but I started loving cricket again, trained a bit harder and everything fell into place."
Being surrounded by greats at Trent Bridge aided motivation.
"When you come down the stairs past the visitors' changing room there's a picture of 'Paddles' [Hadlee] in full delivery stride. We often look at the stats of him and other great Notts overseas players like Clive Rice and Garry Sobers and marvel.
"Paddles alone took 600-odd poles at about 14 (622 wickets at 14.51) and did the double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in 1984. It's a massive goal trying to emulate that so, on the occasion when your name gets mentioned alongside those fellas, it's a source of great pride."
