**Official** New Zealand in England

[BC_fan_abored]

I don't understand why o'brien is put ahead of gillespie based on their stats but i guess it is irrelevant unless we have an injury. Oh and gillespie is a terrible fielder but that can be fixed and i'd rather have his wicket taking ablility opposed to o'brien waddling in with his medium pacers and having a little safer hands.

 

[_Ed_]

I wouldn't say O'Brien necessarily had better hands either, he's dropped a couple of shockers that I can remember, while I think Gillespie's taken a couple of decent catches in ODIs.

 

[BC_fan_abored]

Well then all the more reason to pick Gillespie. He's just as economical and he has a much better average.

 

[Leslie1]

Hm... by economical you mean expensive right? Dizzy might be the one to clean up tails, but he's no Mills when it comes to accurate bowling. I don't know about O Brien frankly either, to me he hasn't disappoint the Black Caps whenever he's played, but he's not a penetrative bowler. Gillespie needs to sort out his stock delivery, because he has none when the pitch isn't doing anything for him.

My top bowling unit:

Martin (1st)
Mills (2nd)
Southee (3rd) or Patel (3rd)
Vettori (4th)
Oram (5th)

The rest are there to make up the squad numbers.

 

[NZTailender]

Slashing my wrists over the last few posts tbh.

 

[BC_fan_abored]

Remember its down the road not across the street and try not to get any blood on the carpet thanks

Also here are the stats for the two bowlers should the frontline attack get an injury


Mat Inns Balls Runs Wkts BBI BBM Ave Econ SR 4w 5w 10
Iain O'Brien 6 10 873 505 12 3/34 5/57 42.08 3.47 72.7 0 0 0
Gillespie 2 3 390 278 11 5/136 6/142 25.27 4.27 35.4 1 1 0
Mason Uhh... not really worth putting up the stats

I'll admit i was wrong with economy but look at the wickets!

 

[Flem274*]

It depends on what we want from a bowler. If we want lots of attack and wickets within two seconds at the expense of lots of runs we use Gillespie, if we want a bowler who is reliable, can bowl all day and bring in a decent haul after a long spell we pick Mason.
If we want a holding bowler and/or Heath to get in a fight with Richard we pick O'Brien

 

[Leslie1]

Well, to be honest, if we can help it, Gillespie should not get anywhere near the test starting 11 if Mills, Martin, Franklin, Southee are fit and ready. I prefer to see Franklin back to tests and he's a much better longer term prospect than Dizzy or O'Brien. They both struck me as the kind of bowlers who are there because a) the talented ones are injured b) Bond is gone c) The up and comers have not done their yards yet (Bennett, Davidson, Trent Boult, B Arnel, Richard Sherlock, etc etc)

Gillespie struck me as the kind of bowler that doesn't bowl with any consistency, and at his age, he should be more polished than what he is doing at the moment. Don't mean to put him down, but if we want a bowler who's a liability on the field, liability with the bat, and bowl as inconsistent as Harmison then I rather have the above bowlers.

 

[Silver Arrow]

New Zealand Cricket today released the 20 players to be offered contracts for the year 1 June 2008 – 31 May 2009.

The players (listed alphabetically) are:

Daniel Flynn
James Franklin
Peter Fulton
Mark Gillespie
Gareth Hopkins
Jamie How
James Marshall
Chris Martin
Michael Mason
Brendon McCullum
Kyle Mills
Iain O’Brien
Jacob Oram
Jeetan Patel
Aaron Redmond
Jesse Ryder
Tim Southee
Scott Styris
Ross Taylor
Daniel Vettori

http://www.blackcaps.co.nz/content/blackcaps/latestblackcapsnews/11674/contract-released.aspx

 

[Leslie1]

This thread has become awfully quiet, but this is sure to stir some body up:

(Taken from another post in another forum)

New Zealand Cricket today released the 20 players to be offered contracts for the year 1 June 2008 – 31 May 2009.

The players (listed alphabetically) are:

Daniel Flynn
James Franklin
Peter Fulton
Mark Gillespie
Gareth Hopkins
Jamie How
James Marshall
Chris Martin
Michael Mason
Brendon McCullum
Kyle Mills
Iain O’Brien
Jacob Oram
Jeetan Patel
Aaron Redmond
Jesse Ryder
Tim Southee
Scott Styris
Ross Taylor
Daniel Vettori


Comments: Wow, Matthews are gone. I'd be surprised if they don't take up an ICL contract or go elsewhere. Grant Elliot appears to be on the outer too.

How can they be so sure Redmond and Flynn are the long term prospects when they haven't even played a proper game.

 

[Bahnz]

Totally picked O'Brien and Marshall's inclusion. Not a bad list all round, considering we've had about 6 retirements over the past year.

 

[KiWiNiNjA]

i do lad, but i has seen too much **** lately and thus i am now an old cynical alchoholic. Watching them throughout the Bracewell era will do that to you.

I think that is more to do with living in Japan, mate!

KN is an old cynical alcoholic too

 

[KiWiNiNjA]

Comments: Wow, Matthews are gone. I'd be surprised if they don't take up an ICL contract or go elsewhere. Grant Elliot appears to be on the outer too.

How can they be so sure Redmond and Flynn are the long term prospects when they haven't even played a proper game.

Matthews? Well, Matthew and Mathew. I doubt they would be offered ICL contracts.
Elliot? Good riddences.
Redmond & Flynn? Well, with all the retirements they were the selectors favourites for the tour of England, so it was pretty obvious they were going to get in.

 

[Days of Grace]

How can Elliot be on the outer??

He was basically a replacement for one match. I don't think he was ever near the top 20 players in the country (if he was, we would be in a deal of trouble).

Shame that Sinclair was not offered a contract. Highly unlikely now he will be offered another chance to play for NZ. A shame and an absolute enigma.

 

[Leslie1]

Lol. Who else have we got over the years in the NZC setup that has the same predicaments as Mr Sinclair?

Be interesting to reminiscent on similar careers as Sinclair - absolutely dominating in the FC scene, but never made it to the Black Caps despite all that talent.

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Bloody hell, there's some crap on that list. Not fit to lace the boots of Geoff Allott, let alone Heath. Tsk tsk.

 

[Flem274*]

This thread has become awfully quiet, but this is sure to stir some body up:

(Taken from another post in another forum)

New Zealand Cricket today released the 20 players to be offered contracts for the year 1 June 2008 – 31 May 2009.

The players (listed alphabetically) are:

Daniel Flynn
James Franklin
Peter Fulton
Mark Gillespie
Gareth Hopkins
Jamie How
James Marshall
Chris Martin
Michael Mason
Brendon McCullum
Kyle Mills
Iain O’Brien
Jacob Oram
Jeetan Patel
Aaron Redmond
Jesse Ryder
Tim Southee
Scott Styris
Ross Taylor
Daniel Vettori


Comments: Wow, Matthews are gone. I'd be surprised if they don't take up an ICL contract or go elsewhere. Grant Elliot appears to be on the outer too.

How can they be so sure Redmond and Flynn are the long term prospects when they haven't even played a proper game.

I'm not sure why Hopkins is there either, he's not a specialist batsman, never will be either so unless McCullum is going to play as a specialist batsman in tests there's no point in the inclusion of Hopkins.

 

[sportychic33]

I'm not sure why Hopkins is there either, he's not a specialist batsman, never will be either so unless McCullum is going to play as a specialist batsman in tests there's no point in the inclusion of Hopkins.

Hopkins must have some damn tight contacts with the selectors.
I guess he's just there as a security blanket incase something happens to McCullum be it injury or defection.
They were probably struggling to find 20.

 

[Leslie1]

Yeah, New Zealand cricket has lost a whole bunch of experienced cricketers lately, Hopkins fit that bill. If I was NZC I would have picked McGlashan for Hopkins' role but that's just me being ND bias.

Do remember as well when Hay served his customary apprentice expect him to take the NZC contract from J Marshall. Unless he surprises us all and performed like a champ in England.

At this stage, there are a lot of young potentials and not enough proven FC veterans. So NZC is probably just taking it a year at a time.

Fulton probably benefitted from not being picked for English series, because if he played, he would have been worse than Bell and Sinclair, I have no doubt. And he won't have got that contract.

 

[Halfpast_Yellow]

Picking Marshall will produce more on this English tour than the Mat(t)hew's recent series effort combined