TARUN NETHULA and his roomie, Michael Mason, were watching the Napier test match on TV in their hotel room in Christchurch when coach Alan Hunt broke the news.
"Obviously it's my first selection so it's a proud moment and it's special for me and my family," the 28-year-old Devon Hotel Central Districts Stags legspinner said after he was named in the Black Caps one-day international squad to play Zimbabwe from this week.
Nethula was in Christchurch with the CD team at the weekend for the Ford Trophy match against the Canterbury Wizards at Rangiora yesterday.
"I told my dad first but he's quite an unemotional type of person," the Heretaunga Cornwall Cricket Club premier player said of Sainath Nethula, a chemical engineer-cum-schoolteacher in Auckland, who only returned a few days ago from India after a relative's funeral.
"Dad said congratulations and make sure you work hard and repay the faith the selectors have put in you, or something along those lines," Nethula said.
From a long line of academics in the family, Nethula has frozen tertiary education to pursue a cricketing career.
His mother, the late Prameela Nethula, was a professor in gynaecology and obstetrics but died in 1997 when he was 13, so he went back to Hyderabad where his grandparents raised him for a short spell.
His girlfriend, Natasha Muthoo, of Auckland, was much harder to convince.
"She wouldn't believe me. I had to convince her to watch the squad announcement on the Cricket Show [SkySport] at lunchtime so she wasn't thinking I was pulling her leg."
Nethula, who Hunt lured to play for CD two seasons ago, received numerous texts and calls from well-wishers including former Black Caps coach Mark Greatbatch, of Havelock North, CD bowling coach Shane Bond and former White Ferns World Cup-winning coach Mike Shrimpton, of Napier.
"Mike and I will be having a chat soon on leg spin to come up with a simple plan of action, if I get picked to play," Nethula said.
Shrimpton has been working with him and other spinners such as Auckland's Bhupinder Singh.
A friend of his father, Amar Alluri, of Queensland, promised to watch him play here if he makes the line-up.
Another congratulatory text came from Black Caps opening batsman Martin Guptill.
"I played with Martin and Michael Bates at the Suburbs New Lynn Cricket Club when we were in the under-19s," Nethula explained.
He said he had also received a text from Auckland Aces spinner Roneel Hira, who was a former Cornwall Cricket Club (Auckland) member.
Black Caps coach John Wright said the emphasis was to win the Zimbabwe series with Ross Taylor and Jesse Ryder out with injuries.
"You look at someone like [Tom] Latham and think it's very early for him but then against Zimbabwe it's probably not a bad time to have a look at him," Wright said, relishing several match-ups to nut out a better opposition for the South Africans.
He considered players such as Kane Williamson, Martin Guptill and Dean Brownlie good enough for all three formats.
"Furthermore, if you're looking at the Sri Lanka T20 we know that when you go there you'll have a lot of spin," he said.
Wright added that Brownlie's figures in T20 were impressive and Williamson was adept with both bat and ball.
"I still like to think that whatever form you're playing you're picking your best players and there'll be one or two who'll come in as specialists.
"These guys are our best batsmen and they'll grow so they need to play more to get better, particularly Guptill, Williamson, arguably Latham because he's still young, and Brownlie ...
"I think they are going to be part of the New Zealand team for a long time."
It wasn't surprising, Wright said, that Auckland and Canterbury players were dominant in the squads because they were the best-performing T20 teams in the country.
"Someone like Luke Woodcock was unlucky but we've given the opportunity to Hira and we want to see how well Nethula goes in the longer form of the game."
Bates was a good domestic player who bowled well in the Champions League in India last year.
James Franklin was experienced and as a leftie was adept at playing spin.
"We hope that when we finish the matches we'll know you've made the right calls but I'm sure you guys will let me know."
Andy McKay (Wellington), Brendon Diamanti (Canterbury), Peter McGlashan (Northern Districts) and Anaru Kitchen (Auckland) were also nipping on the heels of the successful candidates.
The selectors were looking for fighters with certain qualities but it was up to them to buy into the concept.
On Hawke's Bay-born McGlashan, Wright replied: "He's up against Brendon McCullum so you keep looking at numbers, particularly in T20.
"He's not out of the reckoning at all. When I took over [as Black Caps coach] we played Pakistan and he played brilliantly in Hamilton."