**Official** New Zealand in England

April 2008

Sun 27
10:45 local, 09:45 GMT Marylebone Cricket Club v New Zealanders
Arundel Castle Cricket Club Ground

Mon 28 - Wed 30
11:00 local, 10:00 GMT Kent v New Zealanders
St Lawrence Ground, Canterbury

May 2008

Fri 2 - Mon 5
11:00 local, 10:00 GMT Essex v New Zealanders
County Ground, Chelmsford

Thu 8 - Sun 11
11:00 local, 10:00 GMT England Lions v New Zealanders
The Rose Bowl, Southampton

Thu 15 - Mon 19
11:00 local, 10:00 GMT 1st Test - England v New Zealand
Lord's, London

Fri 23 - Tue 27
11:00 local, 10:00 GMT 2nd Test - England v New Zealand
Old Trafford, Manchester

Fri 30 - Sun 1
11:00 local, 10:00 GMT Northamptonshire v New Zealanders
County Ground, Northampton

June 2008

Thu 5 - Mon 9
11:00 local, 10:00 GMT 3rd Test - England v New Zealand
Trent Bridge, Nottingham

Wed 11
10:45 local, 09:45 GMT Worcestershire v New Zealanders
County Ground, New Road, Worcester

Fri 13
17:30 local, 16:30 GMT Only Twenty20 International - England v New Zealand
Old Trafford, Manchester

Sun 15
10:45 local, 09:45 GMT 1st ODI - England v New Zealand
Riverside Ground, Chester-le-Street

Wed 18
10:45 local, 09:45 GMT 2nd ODI - England v New Zealand
Edgbaston, Birmingham

Sat 21
10:45 local, 09:45 GMT 3rd ODI - England v New Zealand
County Ground, Bristol

Wed 25
10:45 local, 09:45 GMT 4th ODI - England v New Zealand
Kennington Oval, London

Sat 28
10:45 local, 09:45 GMT 5th ODI - England v New Zealand
Lord's, London

July 2008

Tue 1
10:45 local, 09:45 GMT Ireland v New Zealand
Mannofield Park, Aberdeen

Thu 3
10:45 local, 09:45 GMT Scotland v New Zealand
Mannofield Park, Aberdeen

Fancy us to take all the Tests, weather permitting, ODIs should be close

Don't you remember a fair few people fancied us to take the Tests 3-0 in some recent series, can't think what it was now.

Seriously - I honestly don't care about the ODIs until they arrive. I hope we can win the Tests 3-0, certainly, but it'd be foolish to take the darn thing for granted.

Hope this line-up will play the First Test:
Strauss
Cook
Vaughan
Pietersen
Bell
Collingwood
Ambrose
Broad
Sidebottom
Hoggard
MSP

BTW, I question the point of playing a one-day game against MCC in the First-Class leg of the tour. And neccessary and understandible though it is that the IPL players will miss the opening 2 games, it's still a tad disappointing.

Won't Flintoff walk straight back into the lineup?

Ireland and Scotland matches ODIs?

Also fancy England to take it 3-0, as Hoggard surely will replace Anderson, and there's no Fleming.

Richard said:

BTW, I question the point of playing a one-day game against MCC in the First-Class leg of the tour. And neccessary and understandible though it is that the IPL players will miss the opening 2 games, it's still a tad disappointing.

Click to expand...

The tour opener at Arundel is good old English tradition.

I know, but why not play a 3-day First-Class game?

Richard said:

Don't you remember a fair few people fancied us to take the Tests 3-0 in some recent series, can't think what it was now.

Seriously - I honestly don't care about the ODIs until they arrive. I hope we can win the Tests 3-0, certainly, but it'd be foolish to take the darn thing for granted.

Hope this line-up will play the First Test:
Strauss
Cook
Vaughan
Pietersen
Bell
Collingwood
Ambrose
Broad
Sidebottom
Hoggard
MSP

BTW, I question the point of playing a one-day game against MCC in the First-Class leg of the tour. And neccessary and understandible though it is that the IPL players will miss the opening 2 games, it's still a tad disappointing.

Click to expand...

Of course I remember, but I'm pretty confident we'll do the jobat home

Leslie1 said:

Won't Flintoff walk straight back into the lineup?

Click to expand...

I hope not, as it's highly unlikely he'd be fit at that point, and would almost certainly simply disrupt things again by breaking down, probably early on in the opening Test.

Richard said:

I know, but why not play a 3-day First-Class game?

Click to expand...

It's just a traditional tour opener and not particularly intended as part of the preparation for the Test Series.

I suppose 3 First-Class (provided they play them properly with no 14-a-side rubbish) games before a Test series is a bit better than normal these days, though the effect of that may well be lessened of course by the IPL.

So thoughts on Southee and How to open?

Better then say Bell

It'll probably affect his bowling. Why not get Vettori to open?

Retox said:

So thoughts on Southee and How to open?

Better then say Bell

Click to expand...

How promising a batsman is Southee? I didn't see his innings today but I remember such batting greats as John Lever and Paul Allot slogging half century's in their first Test.

Because you need specialists to do the job, for crying out loud people.

Retox said:

So thoughts on Southee and How to open?

Better then say Bell

Click to expand...

Leslie1 said:

It'll probably affect his bowling. Why not get Vettori to open?

Click to expand...

NZTailender said:

Because you need specialists to do the job, for crying out loud people.

Click to expand...

LOL.....

Leslie1 said:

It'll probably affect his bowling. Why not get Vettori to open?

Click to expand...

That's actually not a bad suggestion in some ways, as he isn't our best spinner and doesn't start bowling usually till late in the innings, therefore he won't have the fatigue issues that someone like Brendon McCullum might have. However he is successful at number 8 in the order, it is his niche and I can't see it happening.

Vettori, with his propencity to play through gully, would get found out very quickly with the new ball me thinks.

No, it would be foolish. We just have to keep picking specialists and keep training them in technique.

Agreed. I also think Vettori should not be captain unless he can bowl better. He's flattering to deceive at the moment with his figures. He hasn't done anything significant with the ball since he took up captaincy.

Oh dear, maybe captaincy is the poisoned chalice as it was for Flem, as it was for Crowe, as it was for Hadlee. Who knows.

Leslie1 said:

Agreed. I also think Vettori should not be captain unless he can bowl better. He's flattering to deceive at the moment with his figures. He hasn't done anything significant with the ball since he took up captaincy.

Oh dear, maybe captaincy is the poisoned chalice as it was for Flem, as it was for Crowe, as it was for Hadlee. Who knows.

Click to expand...

Who would we replace him with? There's no one on the team that would be ready, let alone good enough to replace him. The next best is McCullum and he would struggle a lot worse than Vettori in the role. Oram, he might make a good captain but I don't think he'll last long in tests. So who else does that leave?

Vettori in test matches is not ever going to be the great spinner, his strength is to stop the batsmen scoring that's why he is so good in ODI's/T20's, but in tests it makes no difference. In tests he should be viewed as an all-rounder, which he does a very good job of.