He burst on to the international scene in 1994 in his fifth test and his first at Lord's with 11 wickets in the match plus a half century with the bat. It looked as though New Zealand cricket had a new star though injuries eventually blighted his time in the middle, cutting short a career which brought more than 700 runs and 93 wickets in tests and 624 runs and 64 wickets in one day internationals.
His brief period of captaincy showed him to be a hard-headed, aggressive sort not far removed from the style being exhibited by current skipper Brendon McCullum in the Cricket World Cup - a hard-headedness Nash said came from his Dargaville cricketing education.
"It takes a village to raise a child, someone once said. And for me, when I come back here I realise that it takes a village of cricketers to raise an international cricketer," he said.
"I really mean that. I look around at all those I bowled with and battled with and tried to bounce them out when I couldn't get them out and I know this was an incredible place to grow up and play cricket. What made it so great was the culture of cricket at that time - competitive, hard and honest.
"I used to come here to practise at these nets, then I'd run down to Memorial Park to scrounge a practice there and then, on the way home, I'd stop off everywhere I knew people would be playing backyard cricket - and then I got into trouble for being late for dinner."
Nash said naming the new pavilion after the late Ross Condon was completely appropriate. Condon, who died late last year aged 68, was one of those stalwarts necessary for cricket's survival; he was groundsman, player, coach, selector, club president, secretary, and together with wife Judy, chief fundraiser.
"Ross was the most competitive and passionate cricket fan I ever knew. His family lived and breathed it and I caught it off them."
The new pavilion came about through ANZ's Field Your Dream promotion. A disused prefab was moved on to the site, converting it from classroom to cricket club. A viewing deck was built by members of Dargaville High School's building academy and the new HQ has Condon's cricket bat and gloves on display alongside various club trophies, Nash's Northern Districts jersey and his Black Caps' blazer.
Nash pointed to the future of cricket in the area, saying: "In 10 years from now, who knows what comes out of this. It's by planting these seeds that things grow. This is how you sponsor something, this is how you get into the community."
The new pavilion would mean more young people getting into the game and more senior players to mentor them, as had happened to him.
Maybe, one day in the future, another Dargaville cricketer may earn selection in the Black Caps and may have a feeling as Nash described recently to the Indian Express about one dismissal of Sachin Tendulkar: "Not many people have experienced that feeling: the tailwind blowing behind you, you are bowling great, taking the wicket of the best batsman in the world. It's a burst from nothing to something, you are expecting something to happen, the expectation of a wicket is there, but it might not happen.
"When it does, boy, it feels just great. There is nothing that beats that feeling. No comparison, really. That's something no one can ever take away from me."
This is part of a content partnership with ANZ.
