***Official*** New Zealand Domestic Season 2015/16

[HeathDavisSpeed]

It's set fair at the Basin. A nice stiff breeze. Perfect Basin weather.

 

[Kippax]

Boy, these Direbirds. So dire.

 

[Kippax]

Gotta say, should've signed Nick Kelly and promised him a top 5 position. Howsie knows more than Bruce Edgar does sometimes.

 

[Kippax]

Haha. Tom Blundell in "being too dinky and cute for his own good" shocker.

 

[Howsie]

Serious question but do Wellington have any, even decent, young talented players coming through? Michael Pollard is the best I've seen from them in the last few years and he's to be frank, crap. Is there any concern within the ranks with that?

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Yes. Is there any other answer to your question? I am concerned. Concerned by the lack if investment in local youngsters, concerned by the volume of awful overseas imports and concerned by the early retirement of the few decent youngsters there have been. But then of course you already know this and are just crowing and stirring as usual.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Tbf I think I know a guy who drove from Dunedin to Invercargill in 45 minutes.

Note - planes and helicopters aren't actually 'driven'

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Tbf I think I know a guy who drove from Dunedin to Invercargill in 45 minutes.

Dunedin to Invercargill/Balclutha to Gore- what's the difference - they are all Otago-Southland

 

[Kippax]

I've seen a bit of Wgtn U19 cricket this season and the standard is looking fairly poor. 16yo Rachin Ravindra still seems talked of as the one taking the prospect of making a living from cricket the most seriously in the region.

 

[Flem274*]

I've seen a bit of Wgtn U19 cricket this season and the standard is looking fairly poor. 16yo Rachin Ravindra still seems talked of as the one taking the prospect of making a living from cricket the most seriously in the region.

haha is that 9 year old from circa 2009 still ticking along? WAG

 

[Howsie]

Yes. Is there any other answer to your question? I am concerned. Concerned by the lack if investment in local youngsters, concerned by the volume of awful overseas imports and concerned by the early retirement of the few decent youngsters there have been. But then of course you already know this and are just crowing and stirring as usual.

I'm obviously aware of the recent history with Siddons and co. The crappy imports, driving away young players from the game (Boam). Driving young players away from the province (Kuggs). But has there been anything from Edgar or higher up in the last six months with regards to all this and the want to fix it?

 

[Kippax]

haha is that 9 year old from circa 2009 still ticking along? WAG

Yeah that's the one. Hopes are as high for his spin as his batting these days I think.

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

I'm obviously aware of the recent history with Siddons and co. The crappy imports, driving away young players from the game (Boam). Driving young players away from the province (Kuggs). But has there been anything from Edgar or higher up in the last six months with regards to all this and the want to fix it?

You can't solve these sort of problems in the space of one off season. These issues have been around since before Stu Mills retired. That's deep seated failure embedded across the province. Tbh, I haven't been around my club so far this season to see if the underlying attitude has changed. The selections thus far are fundamentally conservative though.

 

[Kippax]

But has there been anything from Edgar or higher up in the last six months with regards to all this and the want to fix it?

Hutt International Boys is taking their development of schoolboy cricketers seriously and should be up vying for the Gillette Cup again shortly. The grass pitches in Wellington are still really substandard though and will probably never breed too many modern-looking international cricketers. Come back in five years are I'd expect to see the Asian kids have improved the quality of spinners after the dynasty of Lance Dry's nude leggies, but still plenty of windblown and toiling seamers that look like Ronald Karaitiana, and "fugly yet effective" dominant batting like Luke Woodcock's. There won't be budding classical Kane Williamsons or 140kph pace.

 

[Prince EWS]

haha is that 9 year old from circa 2009 still ticking along? WAG

I'll never forget the little six year old voice saying "yes" whenever he was ready for the next ball to be delivered by the bowling machine. Unfortunately that video has been removed from YouTube now. It'll be so awesome if he plays Test cricket.

 

[Kippax]

Phlegm to give him some stick in the 2020/21 NZ domestic thread. A typical Wellingtonian's preference for defending shorter balls off the front foot.

I have read he's a bit of a liability in field, if you were thinking that when he took off for the run.

 

[jcas0167]

I've seen a bit of Wgtn U19 cricket this season and the standard is looking fairly poor. 16yo Rachin Ravindra still seems talked of as the one taking the prospect of making a living from cricket the most seriously in the region.

Have you seen much of Troy Johnson? He seems to be one of the more promising batsmen coming through.

Wellington should try to lure Leopard down from Hawkes Bay.

 

[Kippax]

Have you seen much of Troy Johnson? He seems to be one of the more promising batsmen coming through.

Wellington should try to lure Leopard down from Hawkes Bay.

No I haven't, but yeah that HIBS head boy Johnson (a sensible accumulator with the bat apparently, a bit like Robbie O'Donnell), Sears and Ravindra are the Wgtn players I've seen tipped as in contention to make the NZ U19 WC squad. That squad will be named soon after the completion of the domestic U19 tourney, just before Christmas.

 

[Smudge]

Note - planes and helicopters aren't actually 'driven'

Just for viktor's info, it's 204km by road from Dunedin to Invercargill. To make it in 45 minutes would require an average speed in excess of 250kmh. Good luck with that. Please stop talking ****, viktor.

 

[Immenso]

This sums up Wellington cricket for me.

I grew up in a provincial town, with spacious sports fields. Some grass wickets for the higher levels and no over-lapping boundaries. Good facilities at both school and club level and great weather.

Wellington, as most of you know is the complete opposite, except maybe in the Hutt with their huge playing fields. Small fields, artificial wickets, overlapping boundaries on up to all 4 sides .... Plus crap weather.

I played at Endeavour Park in Whitby the other day for the first time. This was a ground that 15 to 20 years ago was developed to first class standard and Wellington played some warm up games there once upon a time. On either side of the pitch is space for a soccer field each. Now .... the turf wicket was removed a few years ago and it has a concrete based artificial. There’s no club based in the excellent soccer clubrooms. Norths play in Linden.

I don’t know the history of the clubs in that area, was there ever a local club based at this park. But currently in all of Porirua, there is only one club – North City. This a ‘city’ the size of the bog standard NZ Provincial city - e.g. same size as Nelson, Napier, Wanganui, Whangarei, Invercargill, Wanganui etc. Just one club for 50k people.

Historically Porirua isn’t cricket heartland, it was softball back when softball was a thing - but there are some affluent suburbs there and they are growing fast. Just one club. Sums up wellington.

Wellington does lots of things well, the geography makes some parts of the city awesome. Just not the cricket ....

Wellington rugby had a similar issue when I first moved here. weren't producing any good players and relying on imports from the surrounding provinces. The good players from their periphery were from the small towns (Spencer and Cullen). Then it started to change, a lot to do with production from (non-cricketing) suburbs like Porirua, Wainui. Think Collins, Umaga etc.