*Official** New Zealand in England

[anzac]

Otherwise, I remember Hick from way back, although I didn't know where at first - turns out he's played in domestic cricket in NZ as well as Aussie and the UK, so that's probably what rang the bells (if not an English tour of the past). Bloody impressive innings, and I'm glad he's not in the English national squad.

Hick had a couple of seasons with ND b4 heading to ENG to gain his qualification for citizenship etc.........during his time in NZ he was based in my home town for a period and my uncle was Captain of the club team he played for - from memory they even held a batting partnership record for the local club comp..........with Hick being the vast majority run scorer as he bats in the top order & my uncle at that stage was winding up his career re back injuries & was in the lower order/ tail - still it was a sizeable partnership into 3 figures - I just can't remember how many tons is all........

 

[Neil Pickup]

I'm glad he's not in the English national squad.

So am I!

 

[marc71178]

Bloody impressive innings, and I'm glad he's not in the English national squad.

Strangely enough, so am I!

D'oh! Snap!

 

[Loony BoB]

Yeah, when I read about how he was in ND, I also read about his inability to pull his domestic record through to international levels. It's always a bit of a shame when that happens. Reminds me of some New Zealand players, too.

 

[meatspx]

Well if we're reminiscing......Graeme Hick stayed in my uncle's cottage at the back of his farmhouse in Matamata.

Not sure why he was there though, must have been sharemilking.

 

[Kent]

I hear Fleming has picked up another abdominal injury, with the seriousness of it not yet assessed. McMillan has a broken finger, but will be OK for Lord's.

There's almost a convenient side to that development for Macca. He'll probably be rested from the Kent fixture, and will rock up on the 20th expecting to have done enough to play.

The axe is closing in on Papps a bit, and I guess he first has to hope he makes the XI this Thursday. NZ often elect to play a shadow test XI in their last warm-up game, and Fleming may be in need of a trial run as opener. Of course if Fleming has had a recurrence of that suspected hernia he had last December, Papps may be playing both at Canterbury and Lord's regardless of his form.

Opener dilemmas, bowlers getting smashed, injury concerns with our man at the helm...I might have to get some 'good-time insurance' on England down at the TAB!

http://home.nzcity.co.nz/news/default.asp?id=39360

 

[anzac]

oh dear - the shortcomings of a 14 man squad already??????

 

[Tim]

I see some NZ fans are panicking already for no apparent reason.

The fact is, while Hick was batting like a master..the rest of Worc's failed to score anything of note & it's highly likely that if NZ had snared Hick early, the game could have been won.

Bond & Tuffey haven't played for awhile so there's no doubt they'll have a bit of rustyness. Although now that they've had a decent blow-out, they should be looking to get down to serious business & return some better figures against Kent.

Good to see Vettori return good figures too.

 

[Tim]

Tooextracool: But when has Oram ever been compared to the lofty heights of Pollock or Kallis in this thread? I certainly haven't suggested it. There might be the odd exception by someone off the planet but not by any reasonable NZ fan on this forum.

I've only been defending Oram on the basis of past comments about a certain English all-rounder.

 

[Craig]

I removed that series because it was a freak of nature on those wickets.

Apart from that he averages in the mid-30s...

Well Flintoff's bowling record isnt exactly world beating.

 

[Tim]

I think we've debated Flintoff/Oram long enough now...who is Flintoff going head to head with in this series anyway? Cairns or Oram & why?

 

[tooextracool]

Tooextracool: But when has Oram ever been compared to the lofty heights of Pollock or Kallis in this thread? I certainly haven't suggested it. There might be the odd exception by someone off the planet but not by any reasonable NZ fan on this forum.

I've only been defending Oram on the basis of past comments about a certain English all-rounder.

heres a quote from one of your fellow sheep,err new zealender
"and oram is the best all rounder in thw world, u poms underrate him at ur peril"

i firmly believe that oram is capable of being a very good all rounder, perhaps as good as cairns, but for someone to rate him as the best all rounder in the world after 10 test matches is ludicrous really.

 

[tooextracool]

as far as martin is concerned....hes had a good series against SA before too(perhaps not as good as the last one but good nonetheless) and then after constant failure was lost in the wilderness for quite a while

 

[Neil Pickup]

heres a quote from one of your fellow sheep,err new zealender
"and oram is the best all rounder in thw world, u poms underrate him at ur peril"

i firmly believe that oram is capable of being a very good all rounder, perhaps as good as cairns, but for someone to rate him as the best all rounder in the world after 10 test matches is ludicrous really.

The key word here being "reasonable NZ fan on this forum".

 

[Kent]

Unfortunately Fleming has suffered a recurrence of last year's injury. He won't play Kent and is in doubt for the 1st test.

I see Caddick hasn't had the chance to do much in county cricket, so I assume the chances of "England's best" playing are almost gone unless any English posters believe otherwise.

 

[Neil Pickup]

You can be sure that the pace attack will be composed of:

Flintoff
Harmison
Hoggard
Jones/Anderson

 

[tooextracool]

You can be sure that the pace attack will be composed of:

Flintoff
Harmison
Hoggard
Jones/Anderson

bar injury im pretty sure jones will start ahead of anderson.
and chances of caddick coming back to the side are about as lean as someone breaking the 400 barrier in this series.

 

[Loony BoB]

Unfortunately Fleming has suffered a recurrence of last year's injury. He won't play Kent and is in doubt for the 1st test.

I see Caddick hasn't had the chance to do much in county cricket, so I assume the chances of "England's best" playing are almost gone unless any English posters believe otherwise.

Aww, crap. Having no Fleming sucks. The only good thing about it is that at least the selectors can breathe a sigh... but still, that's a pretty tough blow. I love how Fleming works. Hopefully the vice captain (Cairns?) will have been taking some decent notes.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Aww, crap. Having no Fleming sucks. The only good thing about it is that at least the selectors can breathe a sigh... but still, that's a pretty tough blow. I love how Fleming works. Hopefully the vice captain (Cairns?) will have been taking some decent notes.

Still think the 14-man squad was a good plan?

 

[Kent]

It seems he's still more likely to play than not, LB.

The team manager is quoted as saying they hope he can be managed through it. It does mean he'll have no trial run as an opener if that's what they were going to do, so Papps should have another couple of innings to get some runs on the board.

I should also give Macca a bit more credit than I did earlier. He broke his finger before the last game, but decided he needs to keep playing to earn his test place.

You can listen to Lindsay Crocker talking about the injuries by downloading this and going about 10 minutes in.