Given the phenomenal growth in achievement in New Zealand cricket, it is hard for many younger people to believe that there were times when it wasn't always so successful.
In fact, it took a special sort of fan to get enthusiastic about the game in New Zealand.
Those who enjoyed the game for what it was, a relaxed, test of skill on a Saturday afternoon played with a few mates who enjoyed each other's company, knew that it was the game itself that was the attraction, no matter at what level it was played.
There were skilled players who were clearly a class above others. Bert Sutcliffe was one and his long-time teammate, the late John Reid,who died aged 92 this week, was the other.
As flag bearers for a sport go, New Zealand was lucky to have them both through some tough formative years.
Sutcliffe was ever the stylist, a popular man whose cricket epitomised the elegance possible when the game was at its best.
Reid was a more belligerent character. A hard-hitter, he liked nothing better than a challenge, and during his career there were plenty of those.
But what the pair did, was inculcate an example for a new generation of players who, with the opportunity to play more often, firstly in New Zealand but increasingly overseas, took the game to the world.
The feats of the New Zealand teams of the 1970s, who made winning a more regular occurrence, have their origins in the example Reid and Sutcliffe set. It is one of the regrets of New Zealand cricket history that Sutcliffe never played in a winning Test side.
Reid was luckier. He led the country to its first Test victory in the fourth Test against the touring West Indians at Eden Park in 1956. A year after the game reached its lowest of lows when New Zealand were dismissed for 26 by England at the same ground.
By the time New Zealand were to tour South Africa in 1961-62, Reid's second tour to that country, he had become a national selector and was able to prepare knowing what he wanted to succeed. He toured the country talking to teammates ensuring they were ready for the great expedition.
With fast bowler Gary Bartlett in his arsenal he had the firepower to supplement Dick Motz and Frank Cameron and to ensure the South Africans didn't have a one-sided contest for their fast bowlers as had happened in 1953-54.
He also had a more stable batting line-up with the likes of Graham Dowling, Noel McGregor, Zin Harris, Paul Barton, John Sparling, Murray Chapple, wicketkeeper Artie Dick, who could bat a bit, while his spin option included leg-spinner Jack Alabaster and Reid's own variations.
The great trek remains one of the most successful of all New Zealand Test tours and it was Reid in his pomp, breaking batting records. But for all the statistical delight, Reid summed up what winning two Tests overseas to tie the series – the first by a New Zealand side – meant to him when saying in The First Fifty, "I can never tell in words what my team's effort and spirit in this Test meant to me. From a team that looked all at sea at Johannesburg [start of the South African leg of the tour] they had been transformed into a tight, determined band of cricketers. Even in our most anxious moments in South Africa's second innings I had always had a deep conviction that this team would not be denied its victory. So it proved."
Reid led a young New Zealand team to India, Pakistan and England in 1965. It was a tour that introduced Vic Pollard, Bruce Taylor, Richard Collinge, Bevan Congdon and Ross Morgan to the international game, and all would play their part in New Zealand's emergence from also-ran territory. It wasn't the most successful of tours but from a development point of view it was one of the more significant tours.
It proved the end of Reid's career, his third tour of England where he was introduced in the special tour of 1949 that was a celebration of New Zealand skill and demonstrated with Sutcliffe, Martin Donnelly, Jack Cowie and the emerging Reid that there were players of quality in the farthest colony.
However, there was one final highlight, the captaincy of the Rest of the World team that played England later in the 1965 season.
He would serve as a New Zealand selector through the 1970s and would return to the international scene after a stint living in South Africa as an international match referee who made an even bigger mark in that role as the International Cricket Conference looked to stamp its authority on the game and to pull back some of the disintegration in player attitudes that had occurred.
Reid was fearless in the role. Once his time was completed he became something of an elder statesman of the New Zealand game. He was ever willing to take time to chat about the game and was always a great source of technical discussion for those who were willing to listen, and learn.
New Zealand cricket still has too many peaks and troughs for the public to be confident of regular success from the side, but Reid made his contribution to lifting the expectations of players throughout his sporting life and the game is much the better for that. His legacy will endure.