"I still have a good eye so I decided to give it a good go because, to use the old saying, we're not getting any younger."
He made his impact for third-division team Marewa CC as player/coach this season when HBCA invited the champion side to compete in the inaugural Twenty20 competition at Nelson Park, Napier.
Four-game-old Rangi bats at No7 for the Bay men and bowls whenever player/coach Sinclair chucks him the ball.
"They look to me and Wiggy [Jayden Wiggins] to take quick wickets or bowl dot balls," he says after scoring 38 runs with Sinclair and hanging tough with 15 runs in partnership with Scott Schaw in the heavy defeat to Poverty Bay on a tricky strip this month.
"I'm just focused on staying out there so I haven't taken much notice of how many runs I've been making."
It'll be the first time at the picturesque Pukekura Park for Rangi who is itching to run on with captain Stevie Smidt: "I've seen it on TV a few times and it's a first-class ground so I'm looking forward to it."
He's mindful that the Bay will have to impose claustrophobic field settings because once the ball breaks the 30m ring it'll race to the boundary.
Anyone who has heard of the Rangi family will know talent is a given.
Father Basil is a former Wairarapa cricket representative who, with Casey Rangi, became the first father-son combination to play premier club cricket in a season when they turned out for Heretaunga Building Society Cornwall CC several summers ago.
Rangi's mother, the late Corrina "Whacker" Rangi, was a Central Districts Hinds and Bay women's representative.
"I know mum would be looking down and she'd be very happy with me and [his sister] Kelly and how well we've been going with our cricket," he says.
He regularly phones his father for advice, considering the senior Rangi seldom misses his children's games at home.
Kelly, 22, a wicketkeeper/batsman/bowler, is playing for the Hinds in their domestic campaign which begins tomorrow against Northern Spirit at Cornwall Park, Hastings.
Brothers Corry, 36, and Beau, 32, both of Hastings, and Manuel, 30, who is teaching in the United Arab Emirates, have displayed remarkable sporting skills, albeit at times at social level.
Trent, 25, is playing for Marewa CC.
Ironically, it was rugby stardom that Casey Rangi yearned more than a decade ago.
A first five-eighth and fullback with Hastings Rugby and Sports, the utility worked his way into Magpies and New Zealand Under-19 trials and squads.
"I made all the squads through the grades but didn't make the starting line-ups," he says, listing the New Zealand Under-19s, Hong Kong Sevens and Magpies as missed opportunities.
"I was up against guys like Christian Cullen and Roger Randle in the NZ Under-19s."
Rejection took its toll and Rangi's rugby dreams started to dissipate.
"I lost my confidence and stopped playing rugby and started playing social cricket and focusing on helping other people so I suppose that's where my coaching came in."
Rangi is enjoying learning from Sinclair, Smidt and teammate Liam Rukuwai.
He is indebted to the Marewa club, MG batmaker Marty Graham and fiancee Bryan "for their tons of support".
Sinclair says Rangi is a team player with good attitude and discipline.
"You know what to get from him and you get 100-plus, especially from an amateur player."
Sinclair says the Bay's win over Bay of Plenty, comprising several ND A reps, at Taupo last Sunday was great and would become a regular fixture.
Graeme Tryon (81 runs) and Indika Senarathne (50) show the Bay aren't banking on Sinclair.
