**Official** New Zealand Domestic Season 2013/2014

[Immenso]

Alan Hunt is the North Island spotter now. So expect to see Raval more highly rated (like this warm up game opportunity).

Looked up on archive, and Hunt didn't come across Bartlett last season during PS.

 

[Kippax]

Not sure why we're capturing and cataloguing every ball of every match and spending hundreds of thousands of NZC dollars a year, if that's all it comes down to. Baker did have good figures against CD last year, too.

 

[Immenso]

Yeah, I'm not saying that's all it comes down to. My point was more about Raval tbh, now probably having a backer in the selection system. Or if not a backer then it will be based on a decent knowledge of his game.

 

[Immenso]

Back on the prolific lower order batting in PS.

From Rosco


Taylor Backs Top Order To Perform On Seaming Wicket... | Stuff.co.nz

"On wickets that do a little bit, even more onus goes on the openers to see off the new ball. But as it showed in our last game for CD, even on green seamers, it swings and moves for 35-40 overs and if you can get through that stage when the ball's hard, with the Kookaburra ball, it gets easier.

"That's when, if you've done the hard work, you can reap the benefits."

 

[RxGM]

Have the NZ cricket awards been and gone for the 2012-13 Season?

Seams odd that they have not occurred yet as we are about to start the 13-14 Season, I think they were around October last year

 

[Kippax]

Cricket | Henry fails fitness test ahead of Firebirds... | Stuff.co.nz

Matt Henry has been ruled out of Canterbury's Plunket Shield match against Wellington in Rangiora today.

The Wizards' strike bowler did not pass a fitness test on match eve, and although coach Gary Stead said Henry could have played, they opted for the sensible approach given there is still a lot of cricket to be played this summer.

"He's just got a bit of hamstring tightness, and while he possibly could have got through the game, we don't think he would have been at his best," Stead said.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/cricket/9471166/Mark-Gillespie-s-ankle-coalition-of-the-unwilling

Painkillers are as much a tool of Mark Gillespie's trade as his bowling boots.

Now it's a cortisone injection that has got him back on the park, after injuring an ankle nearly a month ago.

The 34-year-old Wellington quick felt something go when he slipped in his delivery stride on day one of Wellington's eventual five-wicket Plunket Shield win over Central Districts.

A club game for North City against Eastern Suburbs last Saturday was his first action since, as he seeks to bowl through a degenerative problem that has developed in his ankle.

"The scans showed that I've got a bone coalition or something. Two bones are forming together and whether or not that was the issue [against CD] I don't know. I've had a jab and it seems all right," Gillespie said after being named in Wellington's Plunket Shield team to meet Canterbury at Rangiora from today.

Despite the scans, Gillespie is sceptical about the whole "coalition" thing.

"To be honest, it felt very nervy and because my back's fried it just sends the wrong signals places. When I slipped, that's what I was saying to Vijay [Firebirds physio Vijay Vallabh], that it was very nervy."

Like many an athlete these days, Gillespie was confined to a moon boot and hours of torturous conditioning sessions on a grinder "which is the worst thing ever".

The rehab meant he missed the first chunk of Wellington's Twenty20 campaign. Limited overs cricket hasn't always been Gillespie's best format, but he's confident of featuring in the T20 and 50-over matches to come.

"With Taity [Aussie import Shaun Tait] here it was an ideal opportunity to get the ankle sorted. I could've played, but we had the firepower in town so it was no stress."

While Wellington are delighted to have Gillespie back, they're miffed by how much cricket Michael Papps is playing for them. They believe he should have gone on New Zealand's limited overs trip to Sri Lanka ahead of Rob Nicol and is a far better all-round batsman than test top-order players Peter Fulton and Aaron Redmond.

One of the knocks on Papps is his mobility in the field, but Wellington counter by saying the 34-year-old has the best hands in their team, whether it be catching in the cordon or his ground fielding in the circle.

It's certainly difficult to argue with Papps' runs or the manner in which he has made them lately. He scored just shy of 1700 across all competitions last summer and this season is second in the Twenty20 aggregates, with 155 runs at an average of 51.66 and sixth for the Plunket Shield (227 runs at 75.66).

He heads an experienced and proven Firebirds batting lineup, coming into the start of today's clash. Between himself and James Franklin, Grant Elliott and Luke Ronchi are players who can churn out big runs, while Stephen Murdoch is in career-best form.

Wellington's issue will be taking 20 wickets in this match and they know it.

 

[Kippax]

Mark Reason | Brendon McCullum has no business leading... | Stuff.co.nz

The Indian tour is grubby. The Indian Board recently pressured South Africa into sacking their chief executive officer by threatening not to tour.

It really was a case of: "we don't like your bloke so we're going to take our bat and ball home unless you discriminate against him."

In order to pull off their version of one man apartheid, India needed the connivance of New Zealand Cricket in shifting around some tour dates. And of course chief executive David White was ever so obliging, although he repudiated the suggestion that he knew the background to the request.

It all looks even more sordid when you consider the business interests of a company called Quality New Zealand Ltd. It says in its blurb that it "is delighted to have both Stephen Fleming and Brendon McCullum as shareholders in its business and these two will play a large role in the marketing and promotion of Quality NZ and its products."

QNZ sells high-end New Zealand goods to India. Its chief executive is Geoff Allott, who sits on the board of New Zealand Cricket, and pretty much controls 90 per cent of the company with Fleming and McCullum.

Cricket is used to promote the brand. It matters not that there has been no wrongdoing, the obvious conflicts of interests do not allow for objectivity on any side.

Of course McCullum will want to play against India at any cost and continue his profile in the IPL. He effectively has a financial stake in Indian cricket.

Of course Allott wants to give priority to the forthcoming Indian tour, as a director he is beholden to his shareholders to do so.

It is unacceptable and just one more compelling reason why McCullum can no longer captain his country before the eyes of the world. Let him lead New Zealand to victory in this series, hopefully. Let him depart with the grace that was not afforded to Ross Taylor. And then let's move on.

Kane Williamson is a young man, but Graeme Smith was 21 when he first skippered South Africa and he is the game's most successful captain.

Williamson was head boy at school. His cousin is a journalist, so he has a free insight into the media. And he cares, really cares, about cricket.

It is no bad thing he is not one of the lads, not part of the drinking culture. The great captains rarely are. I suspect Jesse Ryder will be a lot better off with Williamson than McCullum. Time for a fresh start. Time for the future. Time for some decency.

 

[Kippax]

.

Aces line up announced for Stags game: Guptill, Raval, Kitchen, Cachopa, Hopkins, Munro, deGrandhomme, Bates, Martin, McClenaghan, Quinn, Bartlett.

Otago: Derek De Boorder (captain), Neil Broom, Michael Bracewell, Jesse Ryder, Sam Wells, Nathan McCullum, Jimmy Neesham, Mark Craig, Blair Soper, James McMillan, Ryan Duffy, Jacob Duffy.

Northern Districts: Daniel Flynn (captain), Graeme Aldridge, James Baker, Jono Boult, Joe Carter, Anton Devcich, Cam Fletcher, Scott Kuggeleijn, Daryl Mitchell, Anurag Verma, Daniel Vettori, Brad Wilson.

 

[Immenso]

Latham opening for Canterbury. Good.

Even though Fulton is on national call up, Worker is 12th man, so there are other opening options if they wanted them. I say this as usually Latham only opens for Canterbury as a a fill-in.

 

[RxGM]

Latham opening for Canterbury. Good.

Even though Fulton is on national call up, Worker is 12th man, so there are other opening options if they wanted them. I say this as usually Latham only opens for Canterbury as a a fill-in.

And making hard runs, he has 3 matches, to build up the weight of numbers to demand selection for the India series, I think after yesterday the top 6 is locked in (excluding Redmond) for this series.

Looking out the window don't think there will be any play in Auckland today, and probably not tomorrow looking at the forecast. Had a pretty good start to the summer so cant complain to much.

 

[straw man]

Mark Reason | Brendon McCullum has no business leading... | Stuff.co.nz

Extraordinary claims: 3
Extraordinary evidence: 0

Wouldn't be out of place as a CW conspiracy theory though

 

[Flem274*]

Hendo's Hero out in the nervous 90s.

 

[hendrix]

Hendo's Hero out in the nervous 90s.

He's no poof, clearly.

 

[hendrix]

i really hate to use that word in a derogatory fashion but the reference needed to be made.

Who knows, maybe it'll get him into the club. He does have some striking similarities to McCullum in a similar period of his career. Plays the same way, will probably keep and then not keep and then keep again. Looks superb when he hits it.

 

[straw man]

He does have some striking similarities to McCullum in a similar period of his career. Plays the same way, will probably keep and then not keep and then keep again. Looks superb when he hits it.

Latham is more going to be seen as a future Fleming imo - a tall left-hander batsman with assumed natural leadership qualities owing to the gravitas afforded by his height and deliberate bearing. It's funny how physical looks feed into assumptions about a person's abilities sometimes. Even has a slightly ungainly duck-walk like Fleming. Future captain after Williamson, potentially.

 

[hendrix]

he's not tall though?

 

[straw man]

Where's Thierry Henry to inform us of Latham's height. Not quite as tall as Fleming, no.

 

[wellAlbidarned]

Where's Thierry Henry to inform us of Latham's height. Not quite as tall as Fleming, no.

he's not a bowler though so TH has no interest

 

[hendrix]

I would say he's closer to McCullum's height than Fleming's.

 

[KiWiNiNjA]

w00t! Double tonage!

E: Wrong thread but meh!