In the way of coverage, its billing has been distinctly low-key. From the embers of a cancelled trip to Pakistan and within the context of a hectic start to the local domestic season, the beginning of New Zealand's tour of Australia has, in truth, been almost completely overshadowed by other events.

Even in the often cricket-mad environs of Canberra, circumstances promptly saw to it that matters related to a Federal election campaign took clear precedence over the Kiwis' recent match against an ACT President's XI.

And, just to add to the problems, the quality of their early performances hasn't helped either. Having been forced to chase copious amounts of leather in matches against the equivalent of three state second eleven teams, the Black Caps have contributed to growing unease that their upcoming three-Test series against the world champion might produce a horribly one-sided outcome.

But don't expect any of that to worry Lee Carseldine. He's not especially perturbed by suggestions on either side of the Tasman that the visitors' attack still has plenty of work to do if it wants to be vaguely competitive against Australia. Or that, without key spinner Daniel Vettori, they are currently fielding a shadow of their best team.

Only a matter of days after crashing a glorious unbeaten 200 for the Queensland Academy of Sport against the tourists in Brisbane, Carseldine is not about to forget the innings of his life in a hurry. More to the point, the 25-year old all-rounder is revelling in the memory of a week that, for him, delivered some fateful twists and turns of its own.

"It's only just starting to sink in because it all happened pretty quickly, in honesty. It wasn't as though it was the normal sort of seven or eight hour knock for a double hundred; it was all over in around four-and-a-half hours instead.

"It's the proudest achievement in my career to date, absolutely. Obviously playing for Queensland has been a huge thrill every time, and I played in a Mercantile Mutual Cup semi in my first game and then a Final in my second. In terms of scoring runs, the biggest achievement until now, though, was in my A-grade debut, when I made 160-odd not out. And that's about seven years ago."

Carseldine took the field as one of the more senior members of a team of players generally unknown even to the Queensland cricketing public at large. He left it having earned for himself greater recognition than he has enjoyed at any time in his career.

Yet it might never have been.

He was not originally selected in the side and only received a call-up - almost literally at the last minute - when batsman Brendan Nash needed to be placed on standby for an ailing Matthew Hayden at a state match in Melbourne.

And he was blessed that most of the first day was washed out, leaving him with valuable time for a run and a session in the gym that he hadn't originally planned.

"I was just purely intending to play club cricket: gearing myself up to resume a match and to hopefully make a few more runs and take some wickets there and then have a nice little Sunday up the coast."

Carseldine's achievement was made all the more remarkable, too, when placed against the backdrop of another sensational performance that had arrived only seven days earlier. It was then that he had claimed 8/37 with his left arm medium pace and hammered an unbeaten 70 in the course of a single day with club side Valley. And all this in a match that represented his first at full fitness since he broke his foot while playing Lancashire League cricket with Littleborough in the winter.

"I was saying to a few mates that you don't get days like that very often. And then, all of a sudden, one week later I've turned around and made 200 against a Test attack … those guys don't really believe me any more."

And, at the end of it all, does a man as well placed as anyone right now to answer the question think that the New Zealanders are in trouble?

"They probably just struggled to put the ball in the right areas and to create any sort of pressure. Dion Nash bowled quite well actually, we thought. But, overall, consistency was probably something they lacked.

"These guys can bowl well, there's no doubt about that. But, instead of trying to blast a side out as it seems they probably did against us - given that we were a second eleven - they've got to be patient. They need to work on getting the ball in the right spots, frustrating batsmen and creating problems that way, I think."

His runs, in the end, came from a total of just 188 deliveries and in 263 nerveless minutes.

Along the way, he combined with captain Jerry Cassell in a rip-roaring stand of 205 for the fourth wicket that made bowling resemble the nearest thing possible to an act of futility.

And he even afforded aspiring Test spinner Glen Sulzberger the indignity of raising his double century with two fours and a six from the three deliveries that immediately followed an ill-advised bowling change, the last of those strokes landing the ball artistically among teammates in a dugout beyond the reaches of the cover boundary.

"I was on 186 and I'd been told I only had about 10 minutes to get the runs. The spinner came on and I thought 'well, no-one's out on the fence, I'll try and get them this over'. It wasn't turning a lot, the field was up, and I was on a bit of a run."

"The first ball, I ran at him and hit him over the top for four. The second ball I swept for four. And then for the third ball, they still didn't have anyone back so I thought I'd go again and try to hit another four. I got on to it a bit better still and it just cleared the fence for a six!"

"The guys had already been on a roll before I came in so I just wanted to continue that, instead of taking a while to play myself in. I basically wanted to go out there and really dominate from ball one. And the AB Field being as conducive to run scoring as it was - with a flat wicket, an outfield that's not a big one and which is absolutely lightning quick at the moment - I never really at any stage became bogged down."

Even for a man whose association with the sport runs to such inextricable lengths as joining his sister in the ownership and management of the gymnasium at the headquarters of Queensland Cricket, it was an experience like few others.

Moreover, whatever happens on the remainder of this New Zealand tour, and no matter how much or how little it inspires in the way of publicity, one thing's for sure. Lee Carseldine will remember it forever.

© 2001 CricInfo Ltd