Blocky
Banned
Speaking for BA personally though - he is a superb bowling coach, understands things from a biomechanic standpoint and was seeking funding within ND to go and put a specialised bowling clinic together including biomechanic research but couldn't get it off the ground. He had some absolute horror stories about his time spent in the Academy and what they tried to do with his action and there is a lot of regret on his part because he sees himself as one of the "missing generation" of NZ fast bowlers all around his age level that had Dayle Hadlee effectively **** his action over completely and cause him chronic injuries for trying to bowl with something that didn't suit him.Exactly what I was getting at. They're achieving neither. This side should either have trophies to show for the amount of ex/current NZ reps holding up the youth, and created a winning culture, or it should slowly move those guys away and bring through the next wave.
But they shipped in a 35-year-old seamer, who from all reports is a very savvy bowling coach but some of that is negated by the fact he's kept someone out of a spot.
Post World Cup, a hell of a lot of those names above will be gone. Welcome to 2015-2020 Wellington: the Rebuilding Years. Actually they'll probably just offer a bunch of contracts to guys on the fringes from around the country, and try to rely on the few young talents that have been given a go over the past 2-3 seasons.
As for Pollard, yes his 2013-14 PS numbers are good but his T20 record in particular is horrendous for a player of his hitting ability.
I don't think for a second he would actively want to hold someone out of first class cricket - I watched him mentor a guy who wasn't even playing premier cricket in Hamilton and he even talked about getting the guy to come to his club so he could give up his spot and let him have a crack at premier cricket. As far as taking a seasoned old pro into your attack to help mentor and bring through younger talent, he's an ideal guy - I think the problem more so is that they've still got Gillespie, McKay, Elliott and Franklin around which means they're not bringing younger guys through - but it wouldn't surprise me if some younger pace bowlers came through in the next few years and sing Arnel's praises.
Wellington have always had an issue no matter what team they've had on the park, the Crowe era, the Fleming era - they haven't really performed and been that successful when you compare them to other clubs and a lot of that comes down to coaching and selection structures. You have to play for the right school/club to get a look in and they're constantly bringing external talent into their side rather than backing the guys they have.
Yeah, that makes me laugh considering Kuggs has had as good of a season with the bat this year as he did last year, James Pamment is regarded enough for Ross Taylor to have spent some specialised coaching sessions with him down under Seddon Park when Crowe wasn't available. Kuggs was always going to come back to ND - his issue was that he was stuck behind (ironically) Arnel, Aldridge and at the time, Scott. He'd also have been in competition with Baker, Verma, Mathieson. He went to Wellington spying an opportunity to crack first class and came back to ND once he knew he'd get regular time there."His batting will definitely suffer not having me around but bowling wise he should get a fair bit more [overs]."
Quote gold from J.Siddons. We should be so lucky to have him on the scene (stats don't really bear him out at all, incidentally)