Daniel Luca Vettori ONZM (born 27 January 1979) is a New Zealand cricket coach and former cricketer who played in all formats for the New Zealand cricket team. It is the 200th friendly for New Zealand.

Daniel Vettori is a cricketer who plays for the New Zealand national cricket team. He has been part of the team since 1997 and has enjoyed a successful period with the team. Daniel Vettori was born on January 27, 1979 in Auckland. Daniel Vettori made his debut with the New Zealand national cricket team in 1997 in the Test format.

Vettori is a left-arm spinner, but he was beginning to establish himself as more of an all-rounder. He matured into a useful low-order left-handed batsman after scoring 4,000 Test runs spanning six centuries and 23-half centuries.

Vettori is currently New Zealand's leading ODI wicket-taker and also the first left-arm spinner in cricket history to win more than 300 wickets in Tests. He was also the first left-arm spinner in Test history to capture 350 Test wickets.

Personal Life

Vettori is of Italian descent. He is married to Mary O'Carroll (2007), with whom he has three children. He moved to Auckland from Hamilton to live with her but continued to play for the Northern Districts Knights. They have a son named James (born March 8, 2009).

Vettori was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2011 Queen's Birthday Honors for services to cricket. Vettori is the first cousin of David Hill, a rugby union player who played for the All Blacks in a Test.

International Career

Born in Auckland and raised in Hamilton, he attended Marian School and later St. Paul's Collegiate School, where he initially played as a medium pacer but slowly turned into a weirdo. He was one of a very small minority of international sports stars to wear prescription glasses while playing sport, and only one of the few modern-day cricketers to play Test cricket with glasses, including Zimbabwean Charles Coventry, Australia's Chris Rogers and England's Jack Leach and West Indian Clive Lloyd.

He took his 300th Test wicket in Sri Lanka in 2009, becoming only the second New Zealand bowler (after Richard Hadlee) to surpass that mark and is currently New Zealand's leading ODI wicket taker.

Vettori has three 10-wicket moves in Test cricket against Sri Lanka, Australia and Bangladesh. His best innings numbers came in Auckland in 1999–2000 against Australia where he recorded 7/87. He finished this game with the best match figures of his career, taking 12/149. They are the third best ever by a New Zealander, only Ajaz Patel and Richard Hadlee have picked up more in a match. Another 12-wicket bid against Bangladesh in Chittagong made him the only New Zealander to have won a dozen wickets in a Test on two occasions.

Vettori is the first left arm spinner in cricket history to win more than 300 wickets in both ODIs and Tests. He was also the first left-arm spinner in Test history to capture 350 Test wickets. He is now the second-best wicket-taker in Test history as a left-arm spinner with a catch of 362 wickets, just behind Rangana Herath. He is the youngest Test cricketer to capture 100 Test wickets at the age of 21.

He is the bowler who has sacked Shane Warne most often in Tests, taking him out nine times, most notably for 99 in a Perth Test. Ironically, in the 1st Test against Pakistan in the 2009/10 season, Vettori himself was sacked for 99 while chasing a world record in centuries and batting from the number 8 position. He is also the leading runs scorer in Test history when he hit number one in 8th position or lower (2227 runs) Daniel Vettori has also scored the most Test tons when he hit in 8th position(4).

For his achievements in 2005, 2008 and 2010 he was appointed to the World ODI XI by the ICC. He was also named in the world ODI XI and T20I XI by ESPNcricinfo for 2007 and ODI XI for 2008.

He was named to the Team of the Tournament for the 2015 World Cup by the ICC. He was also named to Team of the Tournament by ESPNcricinfo and Cribbuzz.

Captaincy

Vettori captained the New Zealanders in ODI cricket when regular captain Stephen Fleming was unavailable before becoming permanent captain in 2007.

He captained New Zealand at the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa and went on to captain all three formats of the game. Vettori's captaincy did not get off to a good start, losing a test series in England.

Vettori's captaincy got off to a rocky start, beginning with the loss of a Test series in England. Vettori also drew some criticism in the following ODI series when he made angry screams from the Oval's balcony over a controversial run that had taken place. He then refused to shake hands with the England team after the game. This contrasted with Fleming's more lazy, laid-back style.

Vettori resigned from the captaincy and retired from One Day Internationals and Twenty20 Internationals after the 2011 World Cup. However, he was recalled to the ODI team for the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy. His name is included in the New Zealand team's last 15 for the 2015 Cricket World Cup to be held in Australia and New Zealand. At this point he retired from Test cricket after his last Test match came in November 2014 as an emergency injury guard against Pakistan.

Batting Records

Vettori matured into a useful lower-order batsman after scoring 4,000 Test runs including six centuries (110 v Pakistan in 2011, 134 v Pakistan 2009, 140 v Sri Lanka 2009, 138* v Pakistan in 2003, 127 v Zimbabwe in 2005 and 118 against India in 2009) as well as 23 half centuries. Although it took Vettori 47 Tests to hit his first 1,000 runs at a 17.24 average, he only needed 22 Tests for the second thousand at a rate of 42.52 per innings.

In December 2006, Vettori began to establish himself as an all-rounder, beating No. 5 for New Zealand in the one-day series against Sri Lanka.

On December 4, 2009, although the Black Caps only managed 99 runs against Pakistan, Vettori became the top Test run scorer, batting at No. 8, a record previously held by Shane Warne.

After suffering a slump in batting form in 2010, Vettori scored a century against Pakistan when he scored 110 as New Zealand's underclass refused to help post a total of 356. Vettori has a career average of 30.60, but his average jumps to 57.9 against Pakistan, against whom he has three of his six centuries.

In July 2014, he played for the MCC team in the Bicentenary Celebration match at Lord's.

International Play

A five-wicket haul or five-for involves a player taking five or more wickets in a single innings and is considered a significant achievement. Vettori are credited with 22 moves of five wickets. Of his five wicket hauls, Vettori has won 20 in Test cricket and two in ODI matches. With a T20i he has not yet managed the feat.

Vettori's 362 Test wickets ranks second to Richard Hadlee among all New Zealand Test bowlers. He made his Test debut during England's New Zealand tour in 1997, becoming the youngest person ever to play Test cricket for New Zealand, and took his first five against Sri Lanka in March of the same year.

His best bowling figures came in March 2000 against Australia, where he took seven wickets for 87 runs. He has taken ten wickets over an entire Test match on three occasions. Vettori played his first ODI match in March 1997 and is his country's leading wicket-taker. His first five-wicket catch came in July 2004 against the West Indies, where he took five wickets for thirty runs - 5/30 - giving New Zealand victory in the 2004 NatWest Series Final. His other five-wicket move in ODI cricket came against Bangladesh in 2007, where he won five wickets for just 7 runs.

Coaching Career

From 2014 to 2018 he was the head coach of the Royal Challengers Bangalore. In July 2019, Vettori was appointed Dublin Chiefs head coach for the inaugural edition of the Euro T20 Slam cricket tournament. The Bangladesh Cricket Board announced the appointment of Vettori as their Spin Bowling Coach on 27 July 2019. In August 2021, Vettori was named head coach of the CPL franchise Barbados Royals.

Retirement

Vettori retired from One Day Internationals and Twenty20 Internationals and resigned from captaincy after the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup but was recalled to the ODI team for the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy.

His last friendly was in November 2014 as an emergency injury guard against Pakistan. Vettori announced his retirement from all forms of international cricket after the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup.

After signing a 3-year contract, he became the head coach of the Brisbane Heat, effectively ending his playing career in all forms of the game. He is also currently the head coach of Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL and Middlesex in the T20 Blast.