KEY POINTS:
A curious imbalance between Peter Fulton's one-day and test careers should be put right in the coming year.
Since making the national side last year, Fulton has played 38 ODIs - his 23 in this calendar year have produced 811 runs at an impressive 40.55 - but only five tests.
He made his debut against the West Indies in March 2006, but such has been the glut of one-dayers in the lead-up to April's World Cup, New Zealand have played just seven tests in the last 21 months.
In a case of famine to feast, New Zealand will play 11 tests this year, two against Bangladesh, three at home and away against England and three in Australia in November.
"There's a lot to play for, as there was last year with the Tri-Series [in Australia] and the World Cup," Fulton said. "Tests are the ultimate for a cricketer and playing England and Australia are pretty big challenges and I guess a good light to have at the end of the tunnel."
Bangladesh's two tests in Dunedin, starting today, and Wellington come first and it's a chance for Fulton to restate his test credentials, and lay some foundation for bigger challenges to come, having done a good job on his return to the ODI batting lineup.
He is in good touch after having minor knee surgery, which ruled him out of the bulk of the recent tour to South Africa and the entire Chappell Hadlee Trophy in Australia.
Missing that arduous two-month trip has Fulton freshened up for a big year, not that he particularly enjoyed sitting out the tour.
"It doesn't matter what job you've got, any time you're away from home nine or 10 weeks at a time it's going to be tough," Fulton said.
"I really enjoyed, not so much the rehabilitation, but getting back to playing club cricket. Not going back to my roots or anything, but playing to try and make some runs. It was quite enjoyable not having that pressure of expectation."
His roots are in Oxford, 45 minutes west of Christchurch, and he's from a farming background. He plays for Canterbury Country, appeals as a down-to-earth sort, and didn't take the usual route to the top via the national age group teams. In those years he was getting a Bachelor of Arts, playing rugby and cricket and generally enjoying life.
In these days of Twenty20's burgeoning profile and the welter of ODIs, Fulton talks of test cricket still being the ultimate contest, which hints at a player with a traditional mind.
Fulton's height has helped him turn back foot play into a strength and that marks him out from front foot prodders.
When Fulton broke into the Canterbury team in the 2000-01 season he was more front foot and found himself a target for short-pitched bowling from the quicker bowlers. Things have changed.
"I worked pretty hard on that to the point where it has become a bit of a strength off the back foot. So teams have stopped bowling there.
"I've definitely noticed a shift in the last two or three years. (My height) has got its advantages. If bowlers are going to bowl short they've got to whack it in closer to them, which gives me more time to see it."
A case of a psychological battle won?
"Definitely. Early on, people probably said I had a weakness on the back foot. I never felt I did, I just didn't play the hook or pull shot.
"The short ball wasn't going to get me out, but I wasn't necessarily going to score off it either. As it's started to develop as a runmaking shot, it's obviously helped because they've had to bowl something else."
Whatever else his career holds, Fulton will always occupy a special place as one of only five New Zealanders to have scored a first-class 300.
And he'll likely look back on that 301 not out for Canterbury against Auckland at Hagley Oval in Christchurch in March 2003 as a turning point. Before that he hoped to play for New Zealand; that innings told him more.
"Purely because if you look in the record books there's only four other guys who have done it, they'd all played for New Zealand so I thought there must be some sort of relevance there. That was definitely the first time I thought I've got a chance of playing for New Zealand."
It was also his maiden first-class hundred. That broke a barrier which has now led to seven hundreds, 22 fifties and 3993 runs at a fine average of 48.1.
Fulton is not a garrulous, outspoken bloke. He's low-key, but backs himself to make a good fist of the international game.
"I've never been an outwardly expressive person. I just go about my business quietly, but inwardly I've always been reasonably confident of what I've been doing."
The next year shapes as an important one in Fulton's cricket development.
The 300 club
385
Bert Sutcliffe, Otago v Canterbury, Christchurch 1952-53
355
Sutcliffe, Otago v Auckland, Dunedin, 1949-50
338no
Roger Blunt, Otago v Canterbury, 1931-32
317
Ken Ruther-ford: New Zealand v DB Close's XI, Scarborough, 1986
306
Mark Richardson: New Zealand v Zimbabwe A, Kwekwe, 2000-01
301no
Peter Fulton, Canterbury v Auckland, Christchurch, 2002-03
