Cricket is all about timing, not just for batsmen, bowlers and fieldsmen, but umpires too, and New Zealand's Steve Dunne got it right when deciding to embark on a first-class, and then international career in a white coat.

It has taken him around the world, to all the cricketing nations and he's about to become, New Zealand's most experienced umpire.

Already firmly established as the most experienced Test and One-Day International umpire, he will join Fred Goodall on 102 first-class appearances when he walks on to Carisbrook to stand in the Otago-Northern Districts Shell Trophy game starting on January 8.

A former left-arm medium-pacer who played for Otago in his youth, Dunne was forced to give up playing when he found his back couldn't stand up to the amount of play he was asking of it.

"I always wanted to umpire. I had really enjoyed playing but my back gave up on me.

"It was at the insistence of former New Zealand and Wellington player Eric Dempster that I took up umpiring. He was my mentor," he recalled.

It took only four seasons for Dunne to make his mark. His elevation was quick as in the same season as he made his first-class umpiring debut he stood in a One-Day International between New Zealand and the West Indies.

"I do remember my first game, it was at Carisbrook and we probably lost about two days due to rain. I remember lots of the Tests I have stood in but I don't remember a lot about the first-class games," he said.

Coming in when he did in 1986/87 proved something of a ride on an elevator through changes in cricket.

Increasing pressures on umpires resulted in the introduction of a "neutral" umpire in Test matches, while the mushrooming of ODI tournaments at venues like Sharjah and Toronto meant opportunities for umpires to get around the world were significantly improved.

Technology also caught up with the game with increasing use of the television eye through the third umpire, something that Dunne believes has been a significant move in improving the quality of umpiring.

He recalled a time before the use of cameras for run outs.

"I was standing in a Test at the Basin Reserve when John Wright threw down the wickets. In those days a player could be out by 12 inches and because things happened so quickly you could say that it was too close to call and everyone would happily go on with things.

"But that day as I walked off the ground for lunch someone in the crowd said to me, 'That was a poor decision. Why didn't you look at the big screen and make the decision then?'"

The big screen was available to give the crowd the benefit of replay action but it was not for use by the umpires. However, the later introduction of the third umpire was welcomed by Dunne.

"I think it is for the better. It has made us a lot better. We are more accountable now for our decisions," he said.

And that wasn't only for international play but at first-class level where the cameras are not available.

"Whereas players would accept those decisions when players might have been out by 12 inches as too close to call, nowadays if players are out by three inches and the decisions are not given they would go berserk.

"It's the same with bat-pad catches. You just have to be better," he said.

The internationalising of umpiring duties has also resulted in much more working together by umpires. Dunne said this was even the case in decisions on bat-pad appeals where the bowler's end umpire may seek a surreptitious opinion from the umpire at square leg on how he saw the action and if the square leg umpire signals in a certain way, the bowler's end umpire will then make a decision.

"Working together is much more important now. In the past you got no help at all, except in the counting," he said.

Greater demands are also made on an umpire's fitness and Dunne admits to doing a lot of walking to be fit for what has become a full-time duty for him.

Like batsmen, he uses a ball-by-ball technique for his concentration, switching off to the peripheral action. And that is very demanding. He doesn't allow himself to go into a match looking forward to seeing a big-name player perform and how he might enjoy it.

He lets the action happen and it is often the end of the day before he absorbs all that may have sent the public away bubbling or fuming.

Because of what he has experienced at certain grounds, some matches stand out more than others.

The 1994 game at the Oval between England and South Africa was an example. The Oval at that time had a fast pitch, and both teams had a battery of fast bowlers, and the whole match was full of memorable fast bowling.

"There was a lot of good cricket played in that game and Devon Malcolm got nine wickets in the third innings to run through the South Africans," he said.

England won the game by eight wickets and shared the three-Test series.

The Ashes Test at Sydney on the last tour by England was another memorable one.

"Darren Gough took a hat-trick from my end during a sensational spell, and then in 1999 I was standing in an England-South Africa Test when Gough took two wickets in two balls. As he walked back to his mark, he said as he passed me, 'Same umpire, same situation.' I had a little laugh but from memory I think he was no-balled."

The Oval, the Sydney and Melbourne Cricket Grounds and Eden Gardens in Calcutta are grounds he has enjoyed.

"When there were 120,000 in at Eden Gardens you couldn't hear anything. So sound was gone from your decision-making and you had to rely on sight and gut feeling. In New Zealand and many other grounds you can rely almost totally on sight and sound and just a little gut feeling. But it was different there.

"It makes everything harder, especially when you are doing political games," he said.

Dunne was appointed to stand in an India-Pakistan Test in Madras, the first between the two neighbours for 12 years, and the teams and match officials were lectured by politicians from both countries.

Players were told that under no circumstances should they show any dissent at decisions and they should instantly walk off the park.

"In a game before that in an Independence Cup game between India and Pakistan, the Indian crowd were pelting the Pakistanis with small rocks and pieces of concrete and brick. The Pakistan captain told their players to bring the rocks to me. By the end of the innings my pockets were bulging with rocks.

"At one stage their off-spinner Mohammad Hussein was being pelted with crackers [fireworks] and then at one stage a whole lot went off at the same time around him and he disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

"Wasim Akram came up to me and said with a laugh: 'For goodness sake, stop the game, they'll kill him down there.'

"We did stop the game until things settled down," he said.

Dunne has found a sense of humour has been a valuable tool in the game and enjoys nothing more than working with an umpire who has a sense of humour.

"I love to laugh. It's the best medicine and I like to have a laugh at the end of the day, whether it has been a good one or a bad one," he said.

There was also the chance to enjoy antics in the crowd and he thoroughly enjoyed the antics of Antiguan favourite Gravy swinging around on scaffolding around the ground.

And some of the comments from the original one-day pyjama-suited fans, and their megaphone, at the most recent Test at the Basin Reserve had been hilarious and enjoyed by both him and the players.

Humour out in the middle is one of the attractions of the job, humour that only finds its way into the public domain when some of the participants reveal all in end-of-career books, and that is something Dunne is intending to do when he finishes up.

He's not looking that far ahead yet but hopes, at the age of 58, that he may have two or three years of top cricket left.

But a book is definitely on the cards. He's been storing information, including those stories from out in the middle for the last seven or eight years, and while he never reads newspapers during a match, he does clip them to keep a record of matches, players and places for later use.

And at the moment he is penning a chapter for an Australian book on umpires and events for former New Zealander David Gascoigne in Bendigo.

When he writes his own book he'll be telling how he found it to work with Dickie Bird, something a lot of umpires didn't enjoy.

"Every side has got characters, every one of them is a human being and I've always treated them with respect," he said.

One of the first occasions he struck was in his first ODI at Lancaster Park when Danny Morrison was bowling fairly quickly and he bowled an express pace bouncer to Richie Richardson who, as was his wont, wasn't wearing a helmet.

He attempted a hook shot but was too slow, was hit and went down in a heap.

"Dennis Waight, their physio came running out on the field. He took a look at Richie, who was sitting up by then, and said to me, 'Quick, give us the ball.' He then held it in front of Richie said to him, 'See, the ball's all right, you can get on with it now.'"

Among the other changes introduced has been the match referee. And Dunne believes their presence, and sanctioned by the International Cricket Council (ICC), has played a huge part in improving behaviour.

The appointment of three hard men right from the outset, New Zealand's John Reid, Australia's Peter Burge and England's Raman Subba Row, had a big part to play.

"The boards had been loath to discipline their own players, but these referees were tough and were extremely well respected. The players were too scared to misbehave."

Dunne recalled one occasion at the Basin Reserve where Australian captain Allan Border had told bowler Craig McDermott that he wasn't prepared to have to take the ire of the match referee because of McDermott's behaviour and if he didn't improve he'd be on the next plane home.

Of the innings he's seen during his Test career he remembers one Test at Eden Park where India's Mohammad Azharuddin scored 192, while Ian Smith, the New Zealand wicket-keeper, had earlier scored an outstanding 173.

"They were two great innings," he said, but generally he doesn't get to appreciate events while they are happening. It tends to be more in hindsight.

Umpiring has become a full-time occupation now for Dunne who had his own clothing business before closing it down in 1994. It proved a timely decision as the ICC appointed its umpires' panel and Dunne found himself with a new career.

"It is the best view in the house. It is better than watching on television because they never see the great sights I have of the action and you get to know all the best cricketers in the world," he said.

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