The day Vettori ended Spice’s career
Jason Spice can remember the day his first-class cricket career ended.
Luckily, he could fall back on rugby, where he enjoyed a lengthy professional career that took him around the world.
Before he specialised in the ovalball code, the spinner played five first-class matches and two 50-over fixtures for Northern Districts during 1994-96.
He had a distinguished junior cricket career and still owns the best figures by a New Zealander in an under-19 test with 7-42 against Pakistan in Hamilton in 1995.
He made his provincial rugby debut for Waikato later that year.
Spice’s last game for Northern Districts aligned with the arrival of fellow left-arm spinner Daniel Vettori.
It was December 8, 1996, and ND lost a 50-over domestic encounter to Wellington by one wicket.
Spice batted at No 9 and wasn’t required to bowl, while Vettori came in at No 11 and got through seven wicket-less overs in Hamilton.
“He was just so much better,” Spice said of Vettori. “That was kind of the trigger and I was at that stage where I needed to make a decision.”
After performing well for Waikato, the halfback played for the Blues in 1998.
His career took off a year later when he joined the Hurricanes, going on to play more than 60 games during the franchise’s “Expect the Unexpected” era when Jonah Lomu, Christian Cullen and Tana Umaga were the headline acts.
He never quite cracked the All Blacks, and in 2004, Wales beckoned and Spice joined Ospreys, before playing for Cardiff during 2007-09. He bounced around a few English clubs before returning home with wife Viv and their two children in 2011.
On returning to New Zealand he completed a graduate diploma in education and he’s into his eighth year teaching physical education and health at Tauranga Boys’ College.
Spice coaches under-14s rugby at Tauranga Boys and previously oversaw the first XV.
He still rolls the arm over occasionally in club cricket, which led to him playing in the recent Twenty20 Black Clash in Christchurch for the victorious Team Rugby.
New Zealand Rugby Players Association boss Rob Nichol roped Spice into the game but the former Hurricane didn’t get all the details up front.
“I had no idea it was going to be on TV. If I’d known that, I probably would have said no.”
Another youngster who might have a similar sporting choice to make is his Team Rugby mate Kaylum Boshier.
The Taranaki loose forward spent summer training with the Chiefs and turned out for the New Zealand under-19 cricket team last year.
“It’s so much different now,” Spice said. “He’ll have to make a decision because you just can’t do both, that’s the reality. Hopefully he listens to the right people that have his interests, not their own, in mind.”
Sadly for Spice, his sporting aptitude doesn’t seem to extend beyond rugby and cricket.
“I am surprisingly s*** at just about every other sport,” he laughed. “I should be good at golf and I’m not.”