SERENE: Kane Williamson smashes another boundary for New Zealand. PHOTO: FILE
I remember watching Kane Williamson bat in Baywide cricket when he was in Year 10 at Tauranga Boys' College.
He made a dashing half century against my old club Greerton at Pemberton Park. I remember how impressive he was in dealing to the short-pitched pace bowling in particular. He just looked to be batting on a different level to everyone else.
Williamson was a run-scoring machine at Otumoetai Intermediate before that and has not stopped scoring runs ever since.
Last year he reached a pinnacle of performance even the late, great Martin Crowe would have envied. In 12 glorious months he went from a promising international player to arguably the best batsman in the world.
He became the first New Zealander to score more than 2000 runs in a calendar year and became the second New Zealand batsman, after Glenn Turner, to top the ICC Player Rankings for batsmen after scoring 1172 runs in eight tests at a Bradman-like average of 90.15.
In 26 One-Day Internationals, Williamson scored 1317 runs at 57.26 with three centuries and eight half-centuries.
Those performances were recognised In February when Williamson won the Halberg Sportsman of the Year Award, ahead of All Black Dan Carter, Bay of Plenty golfer Danny Lee and motorsport driver Scott Dixon.
Following up such a stellar year in 2016 may have been difficult for other players but not for Williamson.
He also took on the extra responsibility of captaining New Zealand in all three forms of the game with no let-up in batting performance.
In August against Zimbabwe, he scored his 14th test century to become the 13th player to have made at least one against all other test-playing nations. He was the youngest by four years to the mark.
Williamson scored a magnificent 118 against India in Delhi in October, as good an innings as he has ever played, to set up New Zealand's first win in India for 13 years.
In tests he has now scored 4648 runs at 49.44 with 14 centuries, in ODIs he has 4011 runs at 46.10 with 8 centuries, and in Twenty20 he has a strike rate of 124.29 and an average of 34.53.
Earlier this month Williamson was named in the International Cricket Council's Test Team of the Year for the third successive year. He was the only Black Cap to make the Test or ODI team.
This week in the opening ODI against Bangladesh in Christchurch, he reached 4000 ODI runs in his 96th innings. He is the joint fourth-fastest to reach this mark, and the quickest for New Zealand, going past Martin Guptill (112 innings).
South Africa's Hashim Amla is the fastest overall (81), with Sir Vivian Richards (88), Virat Kohli (93) and Gordon Greenidge (96) next on the list of batting greats.
At 26 he has many years ahead of him to continue to break records and set standards that future generations of young Kiwis will aspire to.
It has been another good year for another likeable Tauranga cricketer in Trent Boult.
The Black Caps left-arm quick seems to finally be rid of niggling back stress fractures that upset his progress last year. He has 173 test wickets at 29.15 and in the recent ODI series in Australia he showed he is back to full speed.
Popular Popli
Bharat Popli spent five years at Tauranga Boys' batting with Williamson and the 2015-16 season was when he surged into national reckoning.
Popli, 26, won the NZC Domestic Player of the Year award as well as Northern Districts Cricketer of the Year and Batsman of the Year.
Popli joined the late Martin Crowe, Jeff Crowe, Graeme Hick and Michael Papps in the select group of batsmen to have scored 1000 runs in a New Zealand first-class season.
His breakthrough season netted him 1149 runs from 10 games at 65.78, including three centuries. On three other occasions he was dismissed in the 90s.
He was still at college when he made a century on debut for Bay of Plenty against Hamilton in the 2008/09 season. He has 10 centuries for the Bay, six more than the previous record shared by Richard Shrimpton, Mike Wright and Matthew Hart.
Popli is a rarity in the modern age, playing first-class cricket without a single appearance for the Knights in either of the shorter forms of the game.
Bay of Plenty success
Williamson, Boult and Popli came through the Bay of Plenty Cricket pathway which continues to produce top class cricketers.
Regulars in the Northern Districts and Knights teams are Jono Boult, Brett Hampton, Joe Carter, Bharat Popli and Daniel Flynn, with plenty more knocking on the selectors' doors.
Bay of Plenty won back the prestigious Hawke Cup, cricket's version of the Ranfurly Shield, over the 2015-2016 summer and will defend it at Bay Oval beginning next month.
They also won the Brian Dunning Trophy, the Northern Districts One-Day title, while solid two-day victories over Counties Manukau and arch-rivals Hamilton and a draw with Northland earned Bay of Plenty the Fergus Hickey Rosebowl.
They were rewarded with the TECT Team of the Year award at the Bay of Plenty Sports Awards in November.
■Tomorrow: Peter Burling and Rio Olympic success