One of the great provincial cricket careers is about to end. Adrian Seconi helps Otago opening batsman Craig Cumming look back on the highs and the lows.
When Otago's Plunket Shield match with Wellington at the University Oval ends on Thursday, so will Cumming's illustrious 19-year career.
It has been a fascinating journey for a Timaru youngster who grew up thinking he bowled like Sir Richard Hadlee.
"There are lots of things I will miss but I'm more excited about what is to come than what I'll miss out on," Cumming told the Otago Daily Times.
Summer holidays are a distant memory, confined to a brief period before his cricket career took off. This year marks 10 years of marriage to wife Penny and the couple have never had a proper summer break.
Sons Jacob (8) and Zac (6) never complain. They are happy honing their own skills on the sidelines but have also missed out on those camping trips some of their schoolmates get to go on with their families.
About a month ago, the family started looking at those glossy brochures for camping equipment.
"It will just be nice to have options and do what normal families do. We've got to work out what to do first because we've never actually had a summer.
"But if we do things like camping, I'll have to teach myself how to do it so I can teach my kids.
"It is a chance to give our boys some good stories about what they did at Christmas instead of just watching Dad play cricket."
The cricket boots will be on the other pairs of feet in the house next season. Both his sons will start playing "hard ball" cricket on Friday nights and Cumming plans to be sideline to watch and chip in where needed.
He helped score a game earlier this summer and, as it turns out, Otago's all-time leading run-scorer needed some advice from the bloke sitting next to him - radio presenter Callum Procter.
"I don't know the last time I'd filled in a scorecard. But it was just nice to be able to turn up and have the time to help the kids out and just be a parent."
There will have to be some changes around home as well.
One adjusts to pampered motel life. Wet towels mysteriously return dry and fluffy, and the bed seems to make itself.
"You do get into some bad habits. I still can't work out why when you dial 1 at home you don't get room service."
Cricket can be kind and cruel in equal measure.
One minute you are the hero, the next you are the villain.
It is part of what makes the game so absorbing. Cumming has had his share of failure but, overwhelmingly, he has enjoyed success, particularly for Otago.
Before this final appearance, he had played 94 games for Otago and scored 6533 runs at an average of 43.26, including 21 100s and 32 50s.
He replaced left-hand great Bert Sutcliffe as the province's leading century-maker last season and overtook him as the leading run-scorer this season.
"Every time I go to the Longroom and see my name at the top, for as long as the record lasts, it will be satisfying. But it will be there to be beaten one day."
Cumming grew up in Timaru dreaming of playing for Canterbury. He made his debut in a one-day game in January 1994 and his first-class debut followed two years later at Lancaster Park.
Cumming fashioned a reasonable record with Canterbury but the province had a talented line-up and he was not getting the opportunities he wanted.
He had an offer to transfer to Wellington before eventually deciding to try his luck with Otago.
"Glenn Turner was a selector and I wanted to get under Glenn's wing. I remember in my first three games I didn't score a run and was starting to feel a bit down. Turns picked me up from Carisbrook and told me I didn't have to worry about my place, I would be playing all year.
"He just wanted to see me go out, hit the ball and enjoy it. I got 60-odd in the next innings and did not look back."
Cumming played both test and one-day cricket for New Zealand but the cruel irony is he had used up all his opportunities before he made a technical correction to his batting that proved a game-changer.
He had always struggled with a front-foot press and had spent his entire career fighting it. It took a chat with former Black Caps batting coach Mark O'Neill to find an innovative solution.
"What I learned was my body wanted to move and I'd spent 13 or 14 years trying to stop it. So I created a new move where my back foot went across and front foot come across, and all of a sudden my body relaxed. It was like it did what it wanted to and then I could finally stand still [at the point of delivery].
"The only tinge of regret is that I have not had an opportunity to play for New Zealand after the changes. I think I'm a far better player than I was before I actually got picked.
"I believe I deserved more opportunities in test cricket but when you average 25, you put yourself in contention for being dropped. If I had averaged 35, I would have been getting picked.
"But when you had a front-foot press in your technique, facing Brett Lee at 160kmh, it was never going to end well."
Facing furious fast bowling is par for the course as an opening batsman and Cumming certainly faced his share.
Ten of his 13 one-day internationals were against Pakistan, with speedsters Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammed Sami both very rapid.
It was a torrid test but of all the quicks he faced, South Africa's Dale Steyn posed the biggest challenge. In the second test at Centurion in November 2007, Steyn struck Cumming in the face with a nasty bouncer.
The batsman woke up in hospital in Johannesburg in intensive care with his own nurse and a heart-rate monitor.
He had had five metal plates inserted on his check bone and another above his eye socket.
It was a week and a-half before he could fly home, and a day or so before he could reach wife Penny, who, back in New Zealand, had fallen asleep watching and found out the news via an early morning call from the Black Caps manager.
Cumming rebounded from the setback quickly - probably too quickly, when he looks back now.
Six weeks later, he was back playing test cricket and, in retrospect, was not ready.
It was against Bangladesh at home in Dunedin and Cumming had a lot invested emotionally.
He wanted to do well on his home ground and in front of his family and friends. But he was trapped lbw for one in the first innings and dismissed in similar fashion for four in the second dig. It remains the greatest disappointment of his career.
Earlier in Cumming's career, he lost three teeth courtesy of a drive from Ross Taylor and needed 36 stitches to patch up his lip. A few years later, he slipped while fielding in Invercargill and knocked out one of his replacement teeth.
But the 36-year-old will tell you he has enjoyed a charmed run when it comes to injuries.
"The team would probably tell you I'm always injured but never bad enough not to play."
At the end of the 2004-05 season, Cumming faced an unknown challenge. He was completely exhausted and could not understand why.
He would go for a swim and it felt as though "bricks had been taped to my arms". And his legs could barely carry him around the block. When he fell asleep at a funeral, he realised something was wrong.
A week later, he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and that first insulin jab was like "being injected with pure energy".
Five years on, Cumming has his good and bad days. He has to "stuff jelly beans in my mouth to get the sugar levels up" every now and then but when he exercises consistently and eats well, he feels fine.
"Hopefully, I've shown it does not stop you doing things."
Cumming would like to do more to help raise awareness about diabetes and, in particular, work with children to help further their understanding of the illness.
When Cumming lifts the stumps on his career some time on Thursday evening, he will look back at many highlights.
Eclipsing Sutcliffe's record for hundreds is at the top of the list.
There were back-to-back hundreds against Canterbury in Queenstown last year that were also special. He carried his bat in the first innings. But one of his favourite memories is hitting the winning runs for Otago in the 2007-08 final of the one-day competition.
That match is memorable for the wonderful knock by Brendon McCullum. He smashed 170 to help Otago overhaul Auckland's total of 310 for seven.
Cumming's own effort went short-changed. An underrated bowler, he took two for 46 and scored an undefeated 86 from 93 deliveries.
"To stand at the other end and share in a 194-run partnership with Brendon was ... well, it was cricket played at a level I had never seen before.
"There was a feeling for the next day or so that I've never experienced in my cricket life and something I will forever remember."
What Craig Cumming thinks about ...
• Former Australian opener Matthew Hayden: He would be the most abusive character I've ever played against, but then also one of the nicest guys off the park
• South African pace bowler Dale Steyn: He was the most threatening by far. He felt like he could hit me and that I couldn't do anything about it
• Former Sri Lankan bowler Chaminda Vaas: He could swing it in and then go across you, or he would bowl his cutters and nip one back. I always felt, even though he was only 125kmh, he could get you out at any time
• Australian great Shane Warne: Facing Warney was a thrill just because of who he is, and not getting out to him is something not many players can say
• Sri Lankan great Muttiah Muralitharan: He was by far the toughest to read. I had no idea what he was doing with the ball. It is a strange feeling being at your crease absolutely not knowing what is going to come down
• Otago team-mate Aaron Redmond: His humour and ability to make you laugh in all situations is second to none. He gives the team a lift whenever he is in it
• Former team-mate Gareth Hopkins: He has an uncompromising attitude to playing and training and is a guy you can always talk to about preparation. I loved it when he was with us in Otago and it is absolutely no surprise Auckland has become a successful side, because he is at the helm
• New Zealand and Otago batsman Brendon McCullum: Playing alongside Baz has been a pure joy just because of the way he plays the game. He looked after me when I made the New Zealand team, he always gave me confidence, he always made me feel really good about myself
