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

[Kippax]

$1500 for a four-dayer I think.

 

[Kippax]

Otago just became favourites for the season provided they can get their hands on Rutherford and Wagner for large parts of it.

Rutherford won't be available very often at all imo. Pleasingly for Kippax there's reports of a lot of softness and frittered away starts in his dismissals for Essex, but these people are also talking him up for the sheer purity of his striking on both sides of the wicket, and claiming he'll be just as likely to be present in any given NZ team as say a KW or Guptill.

 

[Kippax]

Righto, with James "ND was my first choice" Franklin as captain, Kippax sure as hell won't be going through the gates once.

Another Firebird flies the coop for greener pastures
GEENTY, MARK. Dominion Post [Wellington, New Zealand] 20 July 2013: D.8.

THE cricketing exodus continues from Wellington, with promising fast bowler Tipene Friday moving north to Auckland.

Friday becomes the fourth player contracted by Cricket Wellington last season to depart, after Jesse Ryder (to Otago), Scott Kuggeleijn (to Northern Districts) and Harry Boam (taking a year off).

Players had until close of business last night to confirm their allegiance before the first round of domestic contracts are announced next Friday.

The six major associations are tight-lipped around this time, but it is understood at least three other Wellington players were in talks with other sides.

James Franklin, who will be ranked No 1 on Wellington's 14-strong list, is understood to have held discussions with Northern Districts but decided to stay put.

Fast bowler Mark Gillespie is another with itchy feet, particularly after his good friend Ryder confirmed a move to Otago. Finding another team who will place Gillespie high on their contract list was the tricky part, and he is also expected to remain a Firebird with a No 4 ranking.

It's hardly a glowing endorsement of the culture within the Wellington dressing room, and leaves coach Jamie Siddons a bigger challenge than improving his charges technically, which he did with some success last summer.

It is understood at least two Wellington players shopped themselves to Central Districts but were declined. Central's only player loss is expected to be opener Jeet Raval, to Auckland.

 

[Hurricane]

Rutherford won't be available very often at all imo. Pleasingly for Kippax there's reports of a lot of softness and frittered away starts in his dismissals for Essex, but these people are also talking him up for the sheer purity of his striking on both sides of the wicket, and claiming he'll be just as likely to be present in any given NZ team as say a KW or Guptill.

He reminds me of Southee 3 years ago - just needed some seasoning and an older head on his shoulders.

 

[RxGM]

Righto, with James "ND was my first choice" Franklin as captain, Kippax sure as hell won't be going through the gates once.

Shouldn't all the first round transfers be officially published by now considering transfered window closed on friday

 

[Kippax]

Shouldn't all the first round transfers be officially published by now considering transfered window closed on friday

A MA may only offer 9 contracts, so there's an extra week to finalise and draw your line between 9 and 13. Friday obvs not a top 9 guy.

 

[Kippax]

Troubled MA eyes U19s latest - YouTube

 

[RxGM]

A MA may only offer 9 contracts, so there's an extra week to finalise and draw your line between 9 and 13. Friday obvs not a top 9 guy.

I was thinking more Raval, he is defenitly a top 9 player.

 

[Kippax]

Auckland only trumpet signings that bolster the format they truly care about obvs.

 

[RxGM]

Auckland only trumpet signings that bolster the format they truly care about obvs.

Hopefully with Matt Horne in charge that all changes signing Raval would be the first step.

 

[Flem274*]

I know I keep comparing him to Guptill who is a 50/50 sort of player you want to be compared with, but Wellington would be mad not to offer Weerasundara a contract for this season. Their top order has fired sporadically at best over the past couple of seasons and Weerasundara has the raw ability, if not the perfect technique, to be a good player for Wellington.

Though if Weerasundara were feeling more selfish than loyal he would shop himself somewhere that hasn't built a record of ignoring and losing their most talented youngsters. Since Raval returned home Central Districts have an opening and some reasonable home pitches for batting...

I think it's important the likes of Jeet Raval, Weerasundara, Joe Carter etc get plenty of time in the middle this season. I wouldn't say they're saviours of the New Zealand opening positions by any means, but we've run out of openers to pick over the past few seasons which is probably why the likes of Guptill got elevated to the whites too early and persisted with for too long. It was nice to see Rutherford develop into a good domestic opener and then go on to score a test hundred, so a few new names in the 12 openers we have to pick from at any given time would be good for the game.

 

[Bahnz]

Eh...it's usually much harder for teen batsmen to make the step up to FC cricket than it is for the bowlers. KW is really the only batsman in recent years who has dominated FC cricket whilst still in his teens. Most of the rest struggle badly until their early 20's, so it would be a big call for Wellington to give one of their contracts (even one of the smaller ones) to an 18 year old, given all the jostling for contracts this year.

 

[Kippax]

Yeah I do quite like the fit of Siddons with someone who genuinely has their best decade well ahead of them for a change, no real tales of epics at school or club level etc. though, only the odd newspaper mention from his high school days, not someone who's been touted years out like a Williamson or Crowe at all.

I'd presume the NZ U19s will be teeing something up in preparation for Dubai in February, so you'd be stepping into something similar to what happened with Mitchell Marsh I think back in 2010.

 

[Kippax]

.

Opener is all geared up to continue big season
Dominion Post [Wellington, New Zealand] 16 Feb 2011: D.3.

Whether against Canterbury representative teams, touring Indian sides or in the Wellington club competition, Rakitha Weerasundara knows his job is to score runs.

IT HAS already been a summer to remember for promising Wellington cricketer Rakitha Weerasundara.

Weerasundara, 15, was a member of the Wellington under-16 side that played against its Canterbury counterparts last month and the visiting St John's Cricket Academy, who were in Wellington from India.

In the two-day game against Canterbury, the right-handed opening batsman, a year 12 student at Wellington College, top scored with 130, his first century for the representative side.

"I was pleased with that," said Weerasundara. "It is always good to play against the best players from another district.

"Canterbury cricket is very strong so I was pleased with my performance."

While he was a standout for the side, he was not the only Wellington player to impress with Mitchell Blutcher (Hutt Valley High), Shehan Senadeera (Tawa College) and Brett Johnson (Hutt International Boys) all having good games.

Blutcher took six wickets in the two-day game and left arm spinner Senadeera finished with 2-13 off his 10 overs in the one-day game. In the two Twenty20 games, Johnson had two innings of 50 runs.

Weerasundara backed up his performances against Canterbury in the under-16 games against St John's.

That side was in Wellington this month on the back of last year's visit by a Wellington representative team, which included Weerasundara, to India.

In the two games against St John's, Weerasundara top scored with innings of 41 and 88.

His 41 was made when Wellington successfully chased a meagre 92 for victory, and the 88 helped Wellington to a total of 310-7 off their 50 overs in the other game.

With the main representative programme now over for the season, Weerasundara's attention has turned to helping his college team play its way back into the Hazlett Shield competition. Wellington College are currently second behind Wainuiomata in the Wellington senior two men's competition.

"If we get into first place we will be promoted into the Hazlett Trophy competition. That is our goal, but it will be a big challenge."

Weerasundara, who is in his second year of playing for his first XI, knows the step up will not be easy having already experienced playing in that grade until the college side was relegated for the 2010-2011 season.

"It is very different from playing schoolboys," he said. "The [opposition] players have a lot more experience."

 

[Kippax]

Cricket | Auckland in danger of missing Black Caps... | Stuff.co.nz

Wellington is poised to host two of New Zealand's five home cricket tests this summer whilst Auckland is in danger of heading back to the test wilderness.

New Zealand Cricket has drawn up a draft schedule for 2013-2014, when West Indies and India will be the Black Caps' opponents from December till February.

It is understood the Basin Reserve is pencilled in to host one of the three West Indies tests, in mid-December, and one of two India tests in early February.

New Zealand's three premier test venues, Dunedin's University Oval, the Basin, and Hamilton's Seddon Park, in that order, are in line to host West Indies tests during December.

The Basin remains NZC's flagship test venue so will be allocated an India test as well, with Hamilton currently shading Auckland in a tight race to host the other test.

Eden Park hosted Auckland's first cricket test in seven years in March, a cracking contest against England which went down to the final ball. But this was outweighed by the disappointing crowds which were well below what NZC hoped for, having gone to the country's largest sporting arena which is expensive to hire.

It drew 38,400 punters over five days, including a big chunk of travelling supporters. The biggest let-down was the 8,800 turnout on the Saturday when New Zealand were 250-1 overnight and the sun shone. Similar sized crowds would fill the Basin and Seddon Park, both far more test-friendly venues.

Eden Park will likely host a Boxing Day one-day international against West Indies, the tour-ending Twenty20 match in mid-January and an India one-day international.

Napier's McLean Park also looks to be mothballed as a test venue but should get one of the five ODIs against West Indies in the Christmas-New Year period.

NZC hoped to announce the summer schedule by now, but India's tour continues to be troublesome.

The all-powerful Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was reluctant to fulfil its requirements of three tests, five ODIs and one T20, as agreed under the ICC's future tours programme, because it clashed with the Asia Cup starting on February 24. A compromise was reached with NZC of two tests, two ODIs and two T20s, scheduled to start in the final week of January after India's tour of South Africa.

NZC remains in negotiations with the BCCI over India potentially returning in 2014-15 to play the remaining test and three ODIs. This would appease broadcasting rights holders and possibly avert NZC from pursuing the BCCI for financial compensation for what is the most lucrative inbound tour.

NZC chief executive David White confirmed India would embark on a shortened tour.

"There's every indication...but what the discussions are about is making up the difference at a future period of time," White said.

"We will be having a tour but the final format of that tour is still being decided. It will be significant and on top of the West Indies tour we've got a lot of cricket next year."

The domestic Twenty20 competition is expected to follow a similar format to last summer, with Friday night matches on Sky Television in November and December, and finals in mid-January in a two-week window between the West Indies and India tours.

Cricket: Warm-up matches for Otago | Otago Daily Times Online News : Otago, South Island, New Zealand & International News

Otago will play five warm-up matches against a combined New Zealand and Northern Districts team in Tauranga in mid-August in preparation for its tilt at the twenty20 Champions League in India in September

As for Otago's prospects, much will depend on which overseas players are available.

''At the moment ten Doeschate and Fuller are involved with Essex and Gloucestershire [respectively]. It really depends on how their teams are going in the Championship, which is the four-day competition, because they play right through to the end of September.

''We can't do anything about that. They are contracted to their counties and they will have first call on them. It is up to Essex and Gloucestershire but we are in constant communication with them.''

And Lee?

''We are still waiting on his availability. He has a bit on about that time of the year ... but we hope that he will be available.

''To be able to take a side over with those three players would be the icing on the cake. But, when you have professionals, you have to work in with what they are doing at that time of the year.''

 

[hendrix]

Thank god for that.

OTOH, it really isn't sustainable that there's no test quality venue where a 3rd of us live.

Plus, the lower humidity grounds won't play into our hands. Need Southee and Boult getting banana swing. Hamilton should be good but the basin hardly ever swings these days.

 

[Kippax]

Yep don't go to Dunedin again without the Duke (or even cooler, the Tiflex) ball, you know it makes sense. I see Hesson as exactly the sort of poindexter to pull off satisfying little 'management sim' coups with player recruitment, balls, pitches etc.

 

[hendrix]

If he could get Duke balls for the Dunedin tests that would be fantastic.

 

[Kippax]

I'm not sure why we're paying well over the odds to prop up an Australian manufacturer and Munro-style batsmanship as it is.

Crowe says NZC and Sky are all about the bottom line, yet the ball remains an area they could achieve more with less.

 

[Kippax]

Cricket: Warm-up matches for Otago | Otago Daily Times Online News : Otago, South Island, New Zealand & International News

Essex Head Coach Paul Grayson is delighted that the county have been able to bring the talented left-hander to the County for the remainder of the season.

Unlikely, but god I'd love Essex to demand Rutherford honours that. No BFJ to the rescue Otago, not allowed.