KEY POINTS:
He's trying hard to remember them; those heat-hazed days in Alexandra, when the only breaks in play were because of parched throats, impending darkness, or the occasional stand-off over a disputed dismissal.
They were sweltering hot times at Molyneux Park - it wasn't uncommon for players to drop
in the field from heat-stroke - but it didn't seem to have any effect on Brendon McCullum and his chums as they waged their own battles on the outskirts of the ground.
They were little tykes then, sons of fathers usually playing for Otago against all-comers on Central Otago's favourite cricket ground, and their contests were almost as intense as anything that was going on out in the middle.
And a fair bit went on in those days, when Otago was chock-full of quality players such as McCullum's old man Stu, Warren Lees, Bruce and Wayne Blair and those laconic Southlanders - Pete Hills, Grizz Hill and Straw Wilson.
They were the last of the true amateurs, those guys; men who toiled at day jobs for most of the year, who played the game as hard as possible, but who always managed to keep the enjoyment factor as a top priority.
And that's what Brendon McCullum is intending to do as he grapples with a new opening batting role in the New Zealand one-day side.
Under all sorts of pressure after a so-far-unsuccessful trial, the 25-year-old has been so hard on himself over the past few weeks that, for the first time in his life, he's started to forget the reason he plays the game.
Somewhere along the line it stopped being fun.
It came as a bit of a jolt, that realisation, because McCullum was never one who identified cricket as a career or a job. It was always a game to be played for fun and adventure; something that needed to be embraced rather than feared.
It's an attitude that he is determined to carry with him for the reaminder of this season's high-profile ODI campaign, as he continues in his bid to make the opening batting position his own.
"I am just starting to think about this again; the reason I play the game," he says.
"The last couple of weeks I think I've almost got to a point where I've put too much pressure on myself, to the extent I haven't actually enjoyed the game. And maybe that's been reflected in my performance.
"The only reason I ever played is because I've loved the game. It wasn't necessarily about success, or winning; it was far more than that. I loved going to practice - I used to love getting ready to go to practice."
McCullum wants the opening batting role; in fact, he's desperate to pin it down. He had a crack at it briefly during New Zealand's previous tri-series campaign in 2001-02 without any great success, but believes it's now only a matter of time until he strikes paydirt.
The problem is, time is proving to be a precious commodity as New Zealand lurch from one calamity to another in the current tri-series, and close in on the three-match, Chappell-Hadlee series at home and the impending World Cup challenge in the Caribbean in March.
The pressure is starting to build on many of coach John Bracewell's initiatives, but none more so than the move to shift McCullum from his once-successful role as an end-of-innings specialist to the top of the order.
To be fair, fortune - in this particular instance - hasn't favoured the brave. McCullum has fallen foul of three lbw decisions in six outings, all of which were marginal in the extreme and has self-destructed in front of the wicket at Christchurch and Hobart.
The New Zealand wicket-keeper, who averages 20.98 from his 95 ODIs, has now opened the batting on 12 occasions for an average return of 17.30 - something he reckons might improve vastly if he avoids over-burdening himself with pressure.
"I'd love to be told now that I'm going to be opening in the World Cup," he says.
"This is what I want to be doing for the rest of my ODI career. I want to be opening the innings for New Zealand and keeping wickets.
"I guess I've felt that I've only got a brief window in which to prove my worth as an opener and, because of that, I've piled the pressure on myself to make it work as quickly as possible. I've wanted to go really well in order to nail it and I've probably gone bit overboard as a result."
As for the idea of John Bracewell's cutting his losses and sending the little right-hander back into the lower-order where's he proved himself in the past, McCullum isn't keen on the move and believes that it would be too premature.
"It's too early for me," he says.
"From my point of view, if people start looking at that it gives me a way out and distracts me from my commitment to make a success of the opening position.
"I really think it's just a matter of time before it will work. It's more a matter of when, than if.
There is a lot of learning involved and I have to accept that it might take time."