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*Unofficial* New Zealand Black Caps Thread

SteveNZ

Cricketer Of The Year
It'll be interesting to see how things go from here, feels like a fork-in-the-road moment. A lot of IPL-crazy folks around me are starting to get concerned ("can we get back to the days when 180 was a winning score" etc). Whether the BCCI is prepared to listen to them will be a pointer to what the real captive audience is like - people who see this as (T20) cricket first and (often mindless) entertainment second, or the other way around. What this means for the international game and the longer formats is a separate question and we're well past that it feels like.
Yeah this is exactly how I feel. I don't watch the IPL, I absolutely abhor it, but I see these scores popping up and it feels rotten. Feels dirty. If I know the BCCI (and I don't) I don't think they'd care a jot about listening to anyone, unless it's listening to the cash register continue to ring. This could be an incorrect generalisation about Indian people, but I would imagine their obsession with the game would go unbroken - I don't know if there'd be a point where they say 'nah this is perverse, we want the old game back'. They just love the game so much, I don't know if the pushback will ever come from them, and that's your majority market.

We've seen it's already cannibalised 50-over stuff, which kills me, really. But having said that, I don't want to watch 450 plays 450 - and that's coming, based on these IPL scores.

I'm a golf fan, and they're rolling back the technology in that sport...I wonder if that would be a solution in cricket. The bats are obviously insane in the amount of wood they have and how mishits still go for six, and when you couple that with smallish grounds, it's just a wackedy-do fest. They could look at that as a way to address the balance - I still think you can play an entertaining game of T20 cricket on a big ground where you can't just clear the hip and find the crowd from the inside half of the bat. Obviously nothing can be done about the size of grounds, we can't shun every ground with boundaries under 75m.

But just like your ex-girlfriend, they have to want to change. They have to recognise they have to change. And almost always won't.
 

SteveNZ

Cricketer Of The Year
Watched the last couple of overs, that last run out struck me as incredibly stupid. A suicidal 2nd at 9 down, surely back O'Rourke to get off strike rather than an almost guaranteed run out straight to long on
 

Bahnz

Hall of Fame Member
Yeah, surely Clarkson would back himself as a better chance to hit 10 off 4 than O'Rourke to get 9 off 4. Bit of inexperience set in in that last over no need to go for the suisingle off the first ball either given it was a wide.

Overall though, a good little A tour.
 
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thierry henry

International Coach
Anyway, seems like O’Rourke continues to make every post a winner. Stocks in TH something something going up something something.
 

RMBolton

U19 Debutant
No Seifert, Yes to Ravindra.

Seifert has been one of our best bats this T20WC cycle (538 @ 28). Stead &co must be insane picking Ravindra over him.
It's over a spare batting spot, so he'll probably be slotted in further down if he plays, but still.
 

thierry henry

International Coach
13/15 of the same players as 2022 - Guptill and Milne out, Ravindra and Henry in

11/15 the same as 2021 - Guptill, Seifert, Astle (!), Jamieson out, Ravindra, Allen, Bracewell, Henry in

So in 3 years we have swapped out Guptill and Seifert for Allen and Ravindra, Astle for Bracewell, and rotated through KJ/Milne/Henry.
 

Fuller Pilch

Hall of Fame Member
Not many surprises here.

Is Finn Allen the back-up keeper? I hope Conway's rehab is going well.

Or perhaps Phillips or M Bracewell will stop bowling to don the keeping gloves.

Probably (hopefully) the last international white ball tournament for many of these players.

I'd prefer if GP or Mitchell had the captaincy in case one needs to take the test job in the next 12 months.
 

straw man

Hall of Fame Member
Was expecting Seifert given Conway's struggles with the gloves.

Selectors love consistency as TH said above. Off the top of my head only one player different from the ODI WC squad too - Latham out, Macewell in.
 

Moss

International Captain
Its a very good side. I am not sold on Henry or Ferguson but otherwise, that should be a strong squad against any team.
Strong on paper, but living off past glories for some time now. No Seifert or Blundell for keeping contingency is quite boneheaded IMO. Might be a tournament too far for some of the squad, but if the wickets play slow and low might actually suit the attack.
 

thierry henry

International Coach
Was expecting Seifert given Conway's struggles with the gloves.

Selectors love consistency as TH said above. Off the top of my head only one player different from the ODI WC squad too - Latham out, Macewell in.
Also Allen in for Young from the ODI WC squad.

But yeah, that's astonishing really, in these times of increasing specialisation. I guess another way of looking at it is that so little emphasis is placed on ODIs that it's actually the T20 squad picking the ODI squad these days.
 

thierry henry

International Coach
On that note, it's sort of counter-intuitively true that the closest thing we have to a T20 specialist seamer is actually Southee. As much as he feels like the most orthodox and hittable of bowlers, he's quite a bit better at T20s than ODIs. I'm not entirely sure why that is - perhaps a case of it being easy to take him for 7 or 8 an over with sensible batting in ODIs, but his subtle change ups and/or new ball swing being a bit more effective against full-on reckless boshing?
 

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