David Leggat: O'Brien will be hard to replace

Iain O'Brien will be remembered for putting everything into his bowling. Photo / Getty Images

Three questions in the wake of Iain O'Brien's bolt-from-fine-leg decision to retire from test cricket.

1. Should he play in the third test at Napier starting on Friday, or should New Zealand's selectors immediately look to the future?

2. Who should replace him?

3. How will he be remembered?

Answers:

1. His career should finish at McLean Park next week, and not for any reasons of sentiment, or because he's a good bloke and deserves one final run round the park. He should be there because he is available, he is in good form, he is one of the three best seamers in the country and New Zealand will need him. End of story.

2. There are candidates, headed by Tim Southee, with his fellow Northern Districts' seamer Brent Arnel probably next in line. That's not the problem; finding someone to adequately fulfil his often thankless roles - into the wind or doing an unfashionable holding operation - might take longer.

3. The interesting one. O'Brien might be, as his captain Dan Vettori remarked on Saturday night, a bowler whose contribution is best appreciated by his teammates.

His record after the Basin Reserve test is a good one - 67 wickets in 21 tests at 34.11 apiece. He had a rough introduction, with two tests against a formidable Australian side in 2005, then nothing for 2 years.

In the course of 2008, O'Brien took 38 wickets at a fine 22.36 in 10 tests; he's taken 24 in seven this year and has found his niche within the bowling operation.

He has been the bowler Vettori has turned to when things were getting sticky, and he's rarely let the skipper down, hence Vettori's observation that he's liked having him in the middle for his "intensity and energy and desire to want the ball at every stage".

The 33-year-old who will be with his wife Rosie in England by Christmas, wants to start a family and has a contract with Middlesex for next year. The decision was purely family-oriented and cricket issues were secondary, he added.

He spoke with a choke in his voice and tears in his eyes.

If anyone wondered what playing for New Zealand meant to O'Brien there was the answer.

When the right buttons were pushed, O'Brien has spoken refreshingly from the heart.

In an interview with the Herald a year ago, O'Brien talked of the "demons" and "dark places" he had experienced when things weren't going well.

The fear of failure and the notion that being dropped, and possibly gone forever from international cricket was only a bad day's bowling away lurked at the back of his mind.

But he found his feet last year, bowled aggressively, dismissed good batsmen and has thoroughly enjoyed his time in the team.

He'll savour his six for 75 against the West Indies in Napier last December, and puts that on a par with the win over Pakistan in Dunedin last weekend.

That might also be a good way to remember O'Brien. His spell on the final afternoon, as Pakistan were edging towards victory, and bowling with a dislocated finger on his right hand.

His three for 35 in 13 unbroken overs, in tandem with another mid-thirties man, Shane Bond, drove New Zealand home. It was a performance loaded with character.

O'Brien won't go down among New Zealand's all-time fast-medium greats. But he should be admired for making the absolute best of his talents and opportunities.