Daniel Vettori has a clear picture in his mind of the ball that he dismissed Kane Williamson with for the first time.

The year was 2005 and Vettori, the world-class Black Caps spin bowler, was making a rare appearance for Hamilton against Bay of Plenty, where a 15-year-old Williamson was making his senior debut.

The fresh-faced teenager, with a phenomenal season of club cricket behind him for Te Puke, walked nervously to the middle to square off against Vettori on a turning wicket.

Vettori dropped his first ball short and the keen-to-impress Williamson was quickly on to the back foot and slapped it straight into the man at short leg. No run.

The next ball was a beauty. With loop, the ball dipped and gripped on the surface to take his edge, and the senior debut of the young prodigy was over before he knew what had happened.

"I got him out first ball, didn't I?" Vettori recalled. "Well, it felt like I got him out first ball," he added with a laugh.

Vettori says word was coming through from everyone in Northern Districts that a special player was coming through.

"That comes from time to time in all parts of cricket around the country so you always take it with a grain of salt, but the right people were saying some pretty amazing things about him so I definitely kept an eye out for him and watched him develop as a player."

Pat Malcon, director of cricket at Northern Districts for almost 20 years, remembers that first match.

Malcon took a call that week from Williamson's coach Dave Johnston, and others from Bay of Plenty Cricket, who were debating whether they should elevate the 15-year-old so early. Malcon maintained Williamson was ready. But a few days later, after watching the dismissal, he was worried what he had done to the young talent.

"I said to myself 'Oh God'," Malcon says. "I told everyone that this 15-year-old was ready and he will be a bit upset about this."

He gave Williamson some time to get over the dismissal then sat down next to him on the edge of the boundary to console him.

Williamson turned to Malcon and says: "The next time I face Daniel Vettori, I have to be really positive with my feet. I was too crease bound. I need to get either right forward or I need to get deep in the crease."

Williamson had no thought that he had just made a second-ball duck. His mind went straight to what am I going to do next time? What will I learn from this?

"I just went, 'okay'," Malcon says. "This is not going to be a problem. He has the mental strength to go on to much bigger things."

Mum Sandra recalls Kane as an 18-month-old baby slotting a mini-basketball into a hoop at the other end of the cot with uncanny accuracy.

"He's always had exceptional eye-hand co-ordination for as long as I can remember," she says.

As a young boy he'd wait for his father, and first coach, Brett, to come home from work so he could give him throw-downs. When Brett got tired of retrieving the ball, Kane would run after it and give it back to him – like a dog playing fetch – so they could continue.

Kane grew up as one of five kids in the sport-obsessed family. He is a twin of Logan and has three older sisters Kylie, Anna and Sophie.

His grandfather Stuart was a free-flowing opening batsman for Waikato. When Kane was 10 his grandmother watched him play in the Milo Cup and she says it was like going back in time, mum Sandra recalled.

"He was standing at the non-striker's end and she said, 'Oh my God, he looks just like his grandfather,' he had the same stance and everything."

Brett continued the family tradition as a Bay of Plenty rep. His uncles all played and Malcon said they were all good cricketers.

Sandra, a former basketball rep, says her girls played hockey or basketball for their province, and age-group volleyball for New Zealand.

Logan, an accountant, played age-group cricket, volleyball and basketball and, like his twin brother, was naturally gifted.

"Kane was always very confident in his ability," Sandra says. "I think Logan could see how good Kane was, which made him stand back a bit."

Kane was also a talented point guard for the senior basketball team at Tauranga Boys' High School, played football growing up and in his one season of rugby he made the Bay of Plenty Roller Mills side as a first-five eighth who could kick off both feet. A concussion at the end of his first season ended his rugby days.

His desire to practise for hours by hitting a cricket ball is legendary in cricketing circles.

"Kane was always very, very focused," his mum says. "He always wanted to perfect whatever he was doing no matter what sport he was playing."

With rugby he would stay out on the field until dark kicking goals. He wouldn't go home until he kicked 10 goals in a row. If he missed the 10th attempt, he would start again. On the basketball court, he would have to make 10 in a row before he would stop.

He would be in the garage hitting a cricket ball in a stocking for hours on end, then as soon as his dad came home, he would be outside ready for throw-downs.

Johnston coached Williamson from the age of nine, and he became a prolific runs scorer for Tauranga Boys' High School, where he was head boy.

"We would train until he couldn't lift his arms anymore," Johnston, 57, says.

"Whenever he had an issue he would call and we would talk about it. He was a good problem solver from a very young age."

Malcon remembers hosting a high-performance clinic on facing spin bowling. He explained there were two ways to be a good player of spin: either you move your feet or you become a proficient sweeper. He asked a 12-year-old Kane which one he wanted to perfect?

"I want to be both," he says.

Johnston has a theory about Williamson. Kane writes left-handed, but throws and bowls right handed. There is one other cricketer who does the same and that is Sachin Tendulkar. Johnston believes it helps his balance accesses a different part of his brain.

"In cricket your top hand is the dominant one, so for right handers their right hand is on the bottom of the bat. I have often wondered if there is some benefit for Kane."

Williamson grew up idolising Tendulkar and loved watching Rahul Dravid, "who was an impenetrable wall of defence". He loved the decisiveness of Ricky Ponting when he left and decided to play the ball, and the stroke-making of Jacques Kallis and Hashim Amla.

Johnston remembers Kane coming home from his first tour of India and downloading everything he had learned from fielding in the gully and analysing his opposition.

"Kane is a very visual learner so he would pick up something very quickly and perfect it in his own game."

Johnston says a big part of Williamson's success is down to having a well-balanced life.

"He is most uncomfortable talking about himself because it is something that doesn't come naturally to him," he says.

Vettori says Williamson has mastered the balance between working hard and getting away from it all.

Vettori, who made his debut for the Black Caps at the age of 18, knows what it is like to come into a dressing room as a kid among men.

Kane and him handled the transition in similar ways.

"We were just trying to take it all in at that age," he says. "He was always keen to learn, but he was doing his own thing at the same time."

It was an unsettling time for his mother.

"They were always a few years older than him so you do worry, but I believed there was always someone looking after him," she says.

Williamson made his test debut for the Black Caps when he was 20. Batting at No 6, he made 131 against India on a turning pitch at Ahmedabad to help New Zealand draw the match.

"He has been ready for everything his whole life," Vettori says. "He is an 80-year-old trapped in a 25-year-old's body."

Williamson has notched up 12 test match tons, and seems on track to surpass Martin Crowe's record of 5444 Test runs as New Zealand's leading run scorer. Last week he moved up to No 2 on the world test batting rankings – his highest spot – behind South Africa's AB de Villiers.

"Knowing Kane as well as I do, [the records] are honestly not important to him," Vettori says.

"People can say that as a flippant comment, but Kane is just trying to go out there and win games of cricket for New Zealand.

"Whatever the situation requires Kane will try to do that for the team. If he has to whack a six when he is on 99, he is prepared to do that. And that is a special attribute."