The touring Bangladeshi cricketers have given their New Zealand Cricket liaison officer, John Bishop, a record who no other man in world cricket possesses.

Looking after the Bangladeshi players' requirements means that Bishop has completed a pat-hand of being official liaison officer for all Test cricket countries visiting New Zealand.

Bishop began his liaison work soon after his friend Christopher Doig became NZC chief executive in 1995, and his first duties were with the 1995/96 Pakistanis. Since then Bishop had attended the needs of all the Test-match countries, sometimes two or three times.

After retiring from his bank manager position at 50, and after a club cricket career mainly at second grade level with High School Old Boys in Christchurch - where he was also club captain - Bishop has mixed his annual liaison work, usually involving four or five months a year, with other duties at NZC.

"I do not have any really favourite teams," said Bishop, "although I could say that some sides, such as South Africa and Australia, are rather better-organised than the others.

"But all the players in all the sides have been great. I enjoy doing things for them, the players appreciate it, and tell me they are grateful. I have never met a player who has not expressed his gratitude when I did something for him."

Bishop said the same compliment might not always apply to team managers, but they had other requirements that might have been hard to meet.

Amid all the good memories Bishop said there had been a few mistakes, but possibly only one that had a noticeable impact - and the mistake was not entirely Bishop's.

When Zimbabwe were preparing for a Test at WestpacTrust Park in Hamilton, Bishop was asked to obtain a recording of the Zimbabwean national anthem for the opening ceremony.

He had heard a recording of what was supposed to be the anthem, and mentioned this to a travelling newspaperman who shall remain anonymous, even if his initials were DJC.

The helpful newspaperman phoned his wife in Auckland, asked her to play a CD containing many anthems, and when these were played back over the phone Bishop heard an anthem described as Zimbabwean, which was the same as the one he had first obtained.

Thus armed with confirmation, Bishop provided the anthem, the opening ceremony went ahead, and only afterward was Bishop told the new South African anthem, not the Zimbabwean, had been played.

The Zimbabwean players were not offended, but once the story got out and about Bishop's Christchurch friends made a gleeful point of referring to the gaffe.

Bishop says the Bangladeshis are already proving as amicable as all the other sides he has helped over the years - and this may be sufficient encouragement for him to try and complete a double pat hand, taking in two visits from the other nine sides.

© CricInfo