Cricket: Kane Williamson's backyard innings

NICE GUY: Black Caps captain Kane Williamson. PHOTO/NZME.

Keeping wickets is insightful and a great asset but it isn't always definitive in dismissing a quality batsman.

Black Caps captain Kane Williamson is a case in point, if you ask Dane Cleaver.

That's despite the pair being first cousins and having spent enough Christmases together in the backyard to know the intricacies of what makes the New Zealand batting maestro tick and Cleaver becoming familiar with one of the country's most watched pair of heels.

"The thing with having backyard cricket, growing up with families, is that we're always watching cricket and talking cricket with all the uncles so we were very lucky growing up because we had a lot of strong boys."

The pair went through their respective Northern Districts and Central Districts age-group pathways before ending up together in the New Zealand Under-19 equation.

"Obviously Kane was prolific in run scoring all the way through from the time he was very young," says Cleaver.

He recalls how he and Williamson ended up representing their schools, Palmerston North Boys' High School and Tauranga Boys' College, respectively, but doesn't remember which school prevailed at the annual Gillette Cup tournament.

"It was pool play and he got a hundred, though," he says with a laugh of the world-class Williamson.

"He got dropped early ... but I can't remember much because we were in fifth form then."

But the family trait of a cordial personality is undeniably synonymous, even though it's an endorsement from one of their own.

"He's always been very down to earth and an extremely genuine person so we always got along well," says Cleaver who may one day play under the leadership of his famous cousin.