World-class New Zealand all-rounder Chris Cairns told the audience at the launch of his book 'Chris Cairns' last night that he regards bowling as his trade, and batting as his enjoyment.

Speaking at the function organised at the Christchurch Casino, Cairns said getting a five-wicket haul when bowling was the most satisfying aspect of the game.

Cairns, who missed the last part of New Zealand's international season when needing more surgery on his troublesome knees, said he was feeling very good.

"My rehabilitation has gone well but it is all in the lap of the cricketing gods," he said.

Cairns said he wasn't motivated by statistics in the way that Sir Richard Hadlee had been during his career, nor was he blessed with the superb bowling action that Hadlee enjoyed.

"I have to work harder on my bowling, I'm not as gifted with my action as he was," he said.

A video presentation of some of the highlights of his career was shown during the evening and inevitably resulted in questions to him about some of the notable moments. He recalled the occasion in 2000 when hitting Australian fast bowler Brett Lee out of the Basin Reserve in the second Test of the series.

The Australians had been getting frustrated with the way New Zealand were batting when Lee bowled a short ball to Cairns which he swung at, although his eyes were closed when he connected with the ball, which he hooked over fine leg and into the gardens outside the ground.

"I walked down the pitch and Flem [Stephen Fleming] said to me 'What have you done?' and I said 'I just wanted to have a whack at it.' Flem described it as 'a moment of clarity.'"

Cairns did say that managing to get Australia's leg-spinning maestro Shane Warne away at times during the last few years had been satisfying.

"Warnie made me look so stupid during the first part of my career.

"For me to have played alongside a bloke like that was a privilege. I remember at one stage during the Test in Hamilton I took a single with a hit to long off and as I ran by him I heard Warnie say: 'Thank God for that', and that was one of the highlights of my career to hear that he was pleased I was down the other end, because so often I had been trying to get down to get away from him in the past."

Asked who were some of the hardest bowlers to hit, Cairns said Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan was 'quite hard' to hit, as were bowlers who didn't put any pace on the ball.

Among the speakers at the function were his New Zealand team-mates Chris Harris, Nathan Astle and Craig McMillan who poked fun at Cairns over some of their experiences with him during their careers.

Others to speak were former New Zealand captain Martin Crowe and former chief executive of New Zealand Cricket Christopher Doig.

Crowe recalled the morning of Cairns' first Test, against Australia at Perth in 1989, when he travelled down in the hotel lift with Cairns.

"He was white with fear, a broken man, he was too young at 19 and suffered a stress fracture to his back in that game.

"But I also remember when he came back and took a six-for against England and then he went through the most hopeless cricket regime I've ever seen in 1995/96.

"It took an Aussie, finally, after seven years to sort him out," he said.

Steve Rixon had told Cairns to go out and express himself and as a result for the last five years he had blessed New Zealand with his skill and had made commentary for Crowe a great joy.

Crowe said that Cairns' feats with bat and ball put him in a statistical club whose only other members were Keith Miller, Gary Sobers, Ian Botham and Imran Khan.

Doig said it was fair to say that there was nobody who had given him more pleasure, nor greater concern, than Cairns.

But there had been no doubt that the "Black Caps walked a little taller, played with greater self-respect when a fully-fit, focused and fizzing Chris Cairns walked onto the paddock with them."

Doig said when a fully-fit Dion Nash was also available the pair were formidable, bringing out the best in their respective games.

"It was one of the great tragedies that it was so infrequently that they played together.

"Chris had a fierce individual determination to carve out his niche in New Zealand cricket. He was passionate about doing well, and New Zealand cricket doing well," he said.

There were times when his frustrations would boil over and end up inappropriately in the media but he had grown to understand the processes needed to advance his own, and New Zealand's game.

"He emerged from the shadow of his father [Lance] and was the greatest all-rounder in cricket today," Doig said and it was with huge satisfaction that Cairns had matured into an outstanding individual in his own right.

© CricInfo