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This is the story of how I came to be yet another in a long line of ever-suffering NZ cricket supporters.

It was the summer of 97/98. My friend introduced me to the wonders of cricket via the (then) VB Series in Australia. At the tender age of 11, I already formed a strong dislike of the Australian cricket team, unable to stand their "champions mentality", and Michael Bevan's massive cheesy grin. Oh, and Ian Harvey. Bloody Ian Harvey.

So supporting the team of the country in which I was born and bred was out of the question. One night, I decided to watch a match between New Zealand and South Africa. It was a very close run chase, but despite the efforts of the NZ cricket team, needing to win off the last ball Dion Nash skied one that was caught on the leg side boundary, and so instead of a match-winning 4, NZ lost by 1. "This," I thought, "is a team that deserves my support." Little did I know that the next 10 years would be full of such near-misses (and not so close thumpings), interpersed with the odd unpredictable win over higher-ranked nations.

And yet, despite the copious number of failures which have come to pass over the last decade, I still see something in this team which I value - they're not Australia.

It also doesn't hurt that they've produced some of the hottest players on the planet.