test match cricket

"This is my 75th Test match, I have already watched 161 one-dayers as well," said the 54-year-old from Auckland.

"I started touring with the rugby national team when they went to Canada in 1989 and I also love to see women's netball. But cricket is my favourite and this is my 13th cricket tour," he added.

An accountant by profession, Shaw always carries a huge New Zealand flag, the flag of his country's cricket board and a Kiwi puppet holding a cricket bat and a rugby ball in its hands. Shaw calls it his 'Lucky Chum'.

"I am grateful to my boss who lets me take leaves for foreign trips. I love mixing with the crowd. Indian crowd are the best," said the man who could be mistaken for Bangladesh coach Dav Whatmore at times.

It is his early days in Dhaka but Shaw has already become aware of one of the notorious features of the capital city.

"I've seen the traffic jams here but I am lucky that the stadium is within walking distance of my hotel."

Shaw and his 66-year-old friend Bill Read, who only watches Test cricket, will be heading for Chittagong too for the second match.

Recollecting some of his most memorable moments following international cricket, Shaw picked out his only trip to the Caribbean in 1996.

"I became friends with Brian Lara after he scored a hundred against us. I had gifted a US$ 100 bill to Stephen Fleming for scoring his maiden one-day century during one game in that series. I was having a beer with them that day and I promised Lara a hundred dollars too if he could score a century the next day. He made 167 not out and I ran on to the ground to put 100 dollars into his pocket.

"Nathan Astle scored successive Test centuries in that series but I only exchanged handshakes with him because I ran out of money," grinned Shaw who has never missed a New Zealand Test over the last 15 years.