The Bionic Man
By Danny Morrison
From Xtra

"We have the technology, we can rebuild him!" Remember that intro to the Six Million Dollar Man tele show from the 1970's? New Zealand sport's equivalent in the 1990's/2000 has been undoubtedly Christopher Cairns.

Cairns' injuries over his long and distinguished career are legendary.

Even on debut, the one-off Test in November 1989 at the WACA Perth, versus Australia, Chris Cairns broke down with his first major back complaint after twelve overs of top flight Cricket.

This set back put young 'Cairnsie' out of international cricket for fifteen months. It was not until February 1991 vs Sri Lanka at Eden Park did we see Lance Cairns' oldest son play again for the Clear Black Caps.

And from then on the injury count simply grew to become a real litany of missed tours and matches.

There was the missed tour of Sri Lanka in Oct/Nov/Dec of 1992 because of a kidney operation. The pulling out of the second Test at Hobart in 1993 vs Aussie with an ankle ailment, and then the knee problems started to surface at the beginning of 1994.

He missed the entire home series vs Pakistan and the one off Test vs India at Hamilton. Cairns then had major surgery on his knee in March '94 and missed the subsequent tours to England in the middle of that year and the end of year tours to India and South Africa of '94/95.

To compound things, Chris Cairns was hit in the spleen during a Canterbury - Auckland Shell Trophy match in December 1994 which affected Cairns so dramatically, he missed all but two ODI's of the whole Centenary Season celebration of home fixtures of early 1995.

Cairns then had a good run of fitness until the end of the decade, but unfortunately blew out his calf muscle against South Africa in early February '99.

He recovered in time for the World Cup Tournament and Test Series Tour of England for mid 1999. Despite all of this Christopher Lance Cairns really came of age, realising his wonderful talent and with a tremendous series' against the West Indies and Australia during '99/2000 summer in NZ.....Not for long though, just round the corner the dreaded knee ailments came back to haunt Cairns.

It was all too plain to see for Kiwi Cricket fans, Chris Cairns hobbling during the ICC tournament in October 2000 and the ODI series in South Africa.
Again the star allrounder had to come home with injury frustrations. So no Test matches versus South Africa in the Republic again!

He missed every match at home against Zimbabwe, bar one ODI at Taupo, in which Cairns broke down having bowled only three overs and had to have more substantial knee surgery. This put Chris Cairns out of action for the rest of the series and missed the challenge against Pakistan. Not to mention the trip to Sharjah in April and the Coca-Cola Cup in Sri Lanka in July this winter. Incredibly, all those missed matches add up to 41 Tests and something like 68 One-Day Internationals!

Regardless of how many missed Tours and games, Cairns is so dynamic, he's worth waiting for.

And now we've recently heard conformation that Cairns will not be touring Pakistan in September/October with the Clear Black Caps. The ideal scenario for Cairns' comeback was to have played in the ODI series in Pakistan, had the Test Matches been first. The itinerary does not favour the 'Bionic Man' and so Cairns is targeting the big challenge of world cricket, playing Australia in November/December.

New Zealand needs Chris Cairns to be firing on all cylinders for that toughest of all cricketing assignments.

To beat the best in their own backyard, our best eleven needs to be fit and raring to go. Without doubt Cairns is our number one star attraction, who lifts the team with his talent, presence and skill.

The best Test eleven for me is; Richardson, Bell/Horne, Sinclair, Fleming, Astle, McMillan, Cairns, Parore, Nash, Vettori and Tuffey. Also in the touring party are Chris Martin, James Franklin, Lou Vincent and Paul Wiseman.

Without question, the icing on the cake for the Clear Black Caps for their summer down under, would be Cairns finding that majestic form he showed against Aussie in NZ in 2000 and the ICC trophy later that year.
C'mon Cairnsie, do a Steve Austin... and bring home the bacon!