"The biggest call we have made in my time as a selector." That's how Sir Richard Hadlee described the decision to draft the 20-year-old Ian Butler into the one-day squad to face England in February 2002, after fellow fast bowler Shane Bond had suffered a stress fracture of the left ankle. And Butler duly struck with his fifth ball, trapping Marcus Trescothick leg-before as he shouldered arms. Butler had played just three first-class and two domestic one-day games for Northern Districts at the time, but it was his performances during England's two warm-up games at Hamilton that caught the selectors' eye. He was seriously nippy, twice dismissing Michael Vaughan with brutal short balls that zeroed in on his throat; and he wasn't afraid to give the batsmen a verbal volley either, as Nasser Hussain discovered. Tall, well-built, aggressive, and with a smooth, high action, Butler has all the attributes of a classic fast bowler, even if he can be expensive. But he has it in him to become New Zealand's fastest bowler ever. Lawrence Booth

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