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*Unofficial* New Zealand Black Caps Thread

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SteveNZ

Cricketer Of The Year
jcas0167 said:
He ultimately seems to realise he can't have that at this stage. One thing I wish they had asked was when he said his dream growing up was to play for the Black Caps did that include test cricket? That has generally been seen as the pinacle. Allen has a century against England in red ball cricket for a NZ XI. At what point did he decide to just focus on T20? Does he think other players no longer see test cricket as the main goal with all the T20 money on offer?
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I talked to his manager in Queenstown, I asked him if he had any interest in playing Test cricket...it was obvious he didn't. And that's OK, I don't expect that every player will. Some people would have to adapt too much, and prejudice their shorter form game. But if his dream was to play for NZ, he hasn't chased that dream very hard...and he's given up on it really quick.

It's delusional in the grandest sense to think you can become the best you can be by being in franchise cricket. That's rubbish. OK, participation in the IPL against the world's best would help, but he's been a part of IPL teams and never played, NZ players generally don't make XIs...and there's limited technical coaching in those set ups, and certainly around the world, you just play games - you don't have time to get better. Now he's not contracted, he has no connection to facilities, coaches etc - he will have to seek people who want to work with him.

The one I find the most delusional is 'I wanted to show I was fully committed to New Zealand' when discussing a casual contract. That's just laughable.
 
L

LangleyburyCCPlayee

U19 Cricketer
In the absence of an Afghanistan thread, I shall post the Afghan squad for the Test match here, no Rashid Khan who pulled out of the Hundred

Hashmatullah Shahidi (capt), Ibrahim Zadran, Riaz Hassan, Abdul Malik, Rahmat Shah, Baheer Shah Mahboob, Ikram Alikhil (wk), Shahidullah Kamal, Gulbadin Naib, Afsar Zazai (wk), Azmatullah Omarzai, Ziaurrahman Akbar, Shamsurrahman, Qais Ahmad, Zahir Khan, Nijat Masoud, Farid Ahmad Malik, Naveed Zadran, Khalil Ahmad, Yama Arab.
 
wellAlbidarned

wellAlbidarned

International Coach
Bahnz said:
My guess is 2020/21, when he averaged about 4 for Wellington in the Plunket Shield, and about 60 in the Super Smash, leading to him picking up a speculative IPL contract.
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given his biggest weakness in T20 at the moment is test quality bowlers he could get a lot out of a bit of red ball cricket even if he has no intention of playing tests imo

I want to reiterate that I'm not an anti-t20 dinosaur (sorry Steve) but I reckon over the next while we might see players being a bit smarter with mixing up the formats. Specialisation can be taken too far - 1500m runners don't just run 1500m over and over in training, most of them can run a world class marathon time too.
 
S

SteveNZ

Cricketer Of The Year
LangleyburyCCPlayee said:
In the absence of an Afghanistan thread, I shall post the Afghan squad for the Test match here, no Rashid Khan who pulled out of the Hundred

Hashmatullah Shahidi (capt), Ibrahim Zadran, Riaz Hassan, Abdul Malik, Rahmat Shah, Baheer Shah Mahboob, Ikram Alikhil (wk), Shahidullah Kamal, Gulbadin Naib, Afsar Zazai (wk), Azmatullah Omarzai, Ziaurrahman Akbar, Shamsurrahman, Qais Ahmad, Zahir Khan, Nijat Masoud, Farid Ahmad Malik, Naveed Zadran, Khalil Ahmad, Yama Arab.
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Langleybury CC, that brings back memories. Crazy slope across that ground. Never got used to batting there

Big news for us that Rashid isn't playing, although I'm sure they'll have spinners to keep us on our toes
 
jcas0167

jcas0167

International Debutant
wellAlbidarned said:
given his biggest weakness in T20 at the moment is test quality bowlers he could get a lot out of a bit of red ball cricket even if he has no intention of playing tests imo

I want to reiterate that I'm not an anti-t20 dinosaur (sorry Steve) but I reckon over the next while we might see players being a bit smarter with mixing up the formats. Specialisation can be taken too far - 1500m runners don't just run 1500m over and over in training, most of them can run a world class marathon time too.
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More in the Usain Bolt camp.

Anything over 600 meters was too much. My coach forced me to run a few 600 meters and a few quarter miles, but I would never go longer.”
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S

SteveNZ

Cricketer Of The Year
wellAlbidarned said:
I want to reiterate that I'm not an anti-t20 dinosaur (sorry Steve) but I reckon over the next while we might see players being a bit smarter with mixing up the formats. Specialisation can be taken too far - 1500m runners don't just run 1500m over and over in training, most of them can run a world class marathon time too.
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Haha, do I come across as one? I bet I do. I don't like to think I am, I watch it, I take my kids to it, I used to love the old T20 competition around the late 00s and into the 01s that fed into the Champions League etc. I didn't love playing it, to be honest, being a bowler and all, plus in Auckland we played it early season on astros - it was a mess of mud, skidding and just not really cricket.

But I just hate the balance that is heading towards franchise cricket, that's it. My issue is that. If 50-over cricket (my baby) was gobbled up by franchises, I'd probably come across that I hated that, too.

I really think we can get the balance somewhere near right, where players want to build skills across all formats. I don't need to see the second coming of Geoffrey Boycotts as Test openers, or Ewen Chatfields holding up an end for 1-30 off 20 overs, or any of that olden day Test cricket style...I fully appreciate people bring new approaches to the game. I love Test cricket in his current approach.

Where I am a dinosaur is modern-day quick fixes, dopamine binges, the lack of depth to experiences. I hate AI - with a passion. I hate social media. I hate modern streaming, I hate algorithms. I know this makes me old school, but I love depth of experiences and genuine engagement with things - be it people, events, books, movies, long-term goal setting, things that mean something with depth.
 
S

SteveNZ

Cricketer Of The Year
Athlai said:
Finn Allen really gets you guys going
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Straight up, he does. He was in the SteveNZ XI. I wanted him so badly to be the guy. But now he annoys me. I want to personally bankroll and start up Radio Sport again, employ someone else to host it, just so I can ring up and complain about Finn Allen. I will go to that length to be heard.

It's not Finn Allen personally, never met the guy. It could be Bob Smith, or whoever. But he's the canary in the coalmine, for me.
 
jcas0167

jcas0167

International Debutant
SteveNZ said:
Straight up, he does. He was in the SteveNZ XI. I wanted him so badly to be the guy. But now he annoys me. I want to personally bankroll and start up Radio Sport again, employ someone else to host it, just so I can ring up and complain about Finn Allen. I will go to that length to be heard.

It's not Finn Allen personally, never met the guy. It could be Bob Smith, or whoever. But he's the canary in the coalmine, for me.
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I can imagine Mark Watson, Doug Golightly or Murray Deaker getting stuck into Allen over it then opening up the lines. Brendon Telfer would be quite good too.
 
S

SteveNZ

Cricketer Of The Year
jcas0167 said:
I can imagine Mark Watson, Doug Golightly or Murray Deaker getting stuck into Allen over it then opening up the lines. Brendon Telfer would be quite good too.
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Haha oh man you know these guys would be apoplectic.

Watson, especially: THIS GUY IS NOT PISSING BLOOD FOR THE JERSEY

Then Cyril from Timaru rings in, after he's called the National programme to complain about Maori place names, and adds his 5c worth.

I miss it. It was the soundtrack of my summer, along with Ron 'HIGH WIDE, CAUGHT AT MID ON' Snowden and his domestic commentary mates. I absolutely loved it.
 
jcas0167

jcas0167

International Debutant
SteveNZ said:
Haha oh man you know these guys would be apoplectic.

Watson, especially: THIS GUY IS NOT PISSING BLOOD FOR THE JERSEY

Then Cyril from Timaru rings in, after he's called the National programme to complain about Maori place names, and adds his 5c worth.

I miss it. It was the soundtrack of my summer, along with Ron 'HIGH WIDE, CAUGHT AT MID ON' Snowden and his domestic commentary mates. I absolutely loved it.
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Yep, Golightly might mention Burt Sutcliffe going out to bat head bandaged to face Neil Adcock with Bob Blair who's fiancé had died in the Tangiwai disaster (I first learned of that amazing story from his night show).

Ron Snowden was superb on the domestic commentary (as were all those guys, Alan McLaughlin, Kevin Hart, Steve Davie). With that voice he could add real gravitas to a Cricket Max game. I picked up John McBeth's autobiography recently and Snowden features a bit.
 
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