*Official* New Zealand in England 2015

[Howsie]

Of course county cricket would have helped, but his 'low 30s' average at that time was more to do with him being a 21-22 year old kid.

Come on, no point being rationale here.

 

[Spark]

Definitely was. When he starts unfurling those inside out cover drives off the spinners with alarming regularity, he's pretty much approaching his odi mode.

yeah that was pretty awesome. he had this way of flat-batting those drives too, really snapping his wrists at the last moment. really, really effective way to deal with the turn out of the rough.

 

[Flem274*]

Rahane is my favourite batsman in the world after my fanatical love for Ross. He's what cricket should be all about. Bats like a 9 year old in the backyard. So much fun.

 

[WindieWeathers]

Yeah but holding the fact that he was committed enough to do a county stint shouldn't be a negative as you seem to be suggesting.

I'm not saying it's a negative...just saying that its helped to put him on the same level as the others. If the other have had the same chance though how good could they be? I think all three would move up a level tbh.

 

[Flem274*]

I'm not saying it's a negative...just saying that its helped to put him on the same level as the others. If the other have had the same chance though how good could they be? I think all three would move up a level tbh.

Yeah it's a shame Darren Bravo has had so many issues with his board and himself otherwise he could have been the best batsman in the world by now if he had the opportunity for a county stint.

 

[Bahnz]

Hurricane mate hand on heart if Darren, Smith and Virat were afford the same chance in county don't you think they would be better players too? Especially Virat and Darren seeing as they aren't used to those conditions?!!. Not taking anything away from Kane as the kid is looking like a rock now but county has lifted his game and perhaps given him the chance to be on the same level as the other players mentioned...had he just been playing plunket cricket i don't think he'd be at the same level he is now...just my opinion.

Look the main benefit that Kane got from his 2014 county cricket stint was an opportunity to play a lot of long form cricket in testing conditions. NZ doesn't play nearly as much test cricket as India and Australia, and so their players are at an immediate disadvantage during their developmental phase. Going and playing competitive first class cricket non-stop for 6 months is exactly what a talented young player like Kane needed. Somebody like Smith would probably benefit from it substantially less, because he plays a massive amount of high quality long form cricket already. Kohli would probably improve as a batsman in English conditions, but in terms of his overall record as a player I doubt it would have a huge impact.

Someone like Bravo would absolutely benefit immensely from a season of county cricket, and if he did then maybe he could hope to achieve the kind of sustained excellence that Williamson has. Given how obviously naturally talented he is, I'm sure any county would welcome him, so there's really nobody stopping him but himself.

 

[Dan]

I reckon Bravo would be a complete flop in County Cricket. Not an attempt to diss him as a batsman, but he's a completely different character to Williamson IMO. I couldn't see Darren getting himself up for the daily grind of county cricket matches in the way that Kane regularly has, and he's not quite good enough (read: isn't one of the greatest in history) to paper over that.

I don't see him as a guy for whom the idea of spending six months of your life living in a freezing cold, grey, rainy outer county, travelling all around the country to play day-in, day-out against 70mph hacks and the odd genuine quality player in front of six men and a dog.

Kane, on the other hand, would light up at reading that description.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Look tbh, if this test continues the way it's headed I'm sticking my hand up for some psychological scarring...........being an England cricket fan is truly starting to take it's toll.

Never fear, Dizzy to ride in on his white charger and just pick the entire Yorkshire team, at least they might play with some fight and stick to a plan unlike the England side.

 

[Flem274*]

Look the main benefit that Kane got from his 2014 county cricket was an opportunity to play a lot long form cricket in testing conditions. NZ doesn't play nearly as much test cricket as India and Australia, and so their players are at an immediate disadvantage during their developmental phase. Going and playing competitive first class cricket non-stop for 6 months is exactly what a talented young player like Kane needed. Somebody like Smith would probably benefit from it substantially less, because he already plays a massive amount of high quality long form cricket already. Kohli would probably improve as a batsman in English conditions, but in terms of his overall record as a player I doubt it would have a huge impact.

Someone like Bravo would absolutely benefit immensely from a season of county cricket, and if he did then maybe he could hope to achieve the kind of sustained excellence that Williamson has. Given how obviously naturally talented he is, I'm sure any county would welcome him, so there's really nobody stopping him but himself.

you just used lots of words for no gain

join the dark side and see the sense WW talks. i used to hate him but now i think he's got good points.

 

[Spark]

Haha, Michael Atherton speaking the truth as to the uselessness of the Director of Cricket job.

 

[Howsie]

Oh how cute, he believes Bravo is on the same level.

 

[Flem274*]

spending six months of your life living in a freezing cold, grey, rainy outer county, travelling all around the country to play day-in, day-out against 70mph hacks and the odd genuine quality player in front of six men and a dog.

glorious

 

[Spark]

Oh how cute, he believes Bravo is on the same level.

Well he wasn't a year or two ago - he was on a level above. Fallen off a bit of late after his start

 

[Cabinet96]

Don't get the complaints about the pitch. The rate of scoring has been pretty high and we're on day 2 with one inning completed and the other team barely 100 runs behind. There's no reason why we can't have a result and it's been fun to watch. Now if NZ score 600 and England respond with 500 then we can complain. Don't see the point of crying about the pitch when the match is barely halfway through and a positive result seems very likely.

Agree with all of that. But the thing about Lords is it so rarely every deteriorates.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Doesn't bode well for Wood in terms of fitness then.

He'll be ok if he doesn't try a slide at Brisbane.

 

[Dan]

glorious

That all being said, I think he'd get something out of a short-term stint before an England tour, like Sanga did the other year. A full-season one would just get him into bad habits IMO.

 

[WindieWeathers]

I reckon Bravo would be a complete flop in County Cricket. Not an attempt to diss him as a batsman, but he's a completely different character to Williamson IMO. I couldn't see Darren getting himself up for the daily grind of county cricket matches in the way that Kane regularly has, and he's not quite good enough (read: isn't one of the greatest in history) to paper over that.

I don't see him as a guy for whom the idea of spending six months of your life living in a freezing cold, grey, rainy outer county, travelling all around the country to play day-in, day-out against 70mph hacks and the odd genuine quality player in front of six men and a dog.

Kane, on the other hand, would light up at reading that description.

Darren had a small stint with Nottinghamshire a few years ago!!..averaged near forty over three or four county matches...not sure how much he averaged in the 40 over games though. After that stint he went and scored 196 vs Bang and then back to back tons vs India...but for some odd reason he hasn't gone back to county cricket. His improvement was clear but he hasn't been given the six months spells Kane gets which is a shame.

 

[Athlai]

And yet Ravi Shastri and co are talking about sending Indian players to county to improve their technique with one (Pujara) already there? Williamson was averaging around low to mid 30s in tests before he started playing regularly in county and now low and behold it's gone up. How anyone can argue that it didn't help improve him is beyond me.

You realise that Shastri's reasoning would be regarding their technique against the swinging ball right?

 

[Flem274*]

hold on guys shut up for a second i have a cricketweb sports flash

warne just said there are times where you shouldn't be aggressive as a captain and look to tighten up.

 

[Dan]

Darren had a small stint with Nottinghamshire a few years ago!!..averaged near forty over three or four county matches...not sure how much he averaged in the 40 over games though. After that stint he went and scored 196 vs Bang and then back to back tons vs India...but for some odd reason he hasn't gone back to county cricket. His improvement was clear but he hasn't been given the six months spells Kane gets which is a shame.

Maybe there's, uhh, a reason for that

Yes, yes, poor little Windies being passed over for mediocre Kiwi hacks. Damn Bracewell coaching Gloucestershire!

That said, Fidel Edwards is on a county stint atm and can't help but tweet how bored he is in Southampton.