• Welcome to the Cricket Web forums, one of the biggest forums in the world dedicated to cricket.

    You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join the Cricket Web community today!

    If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us.

NZ future players

Kiwi

State Vice-Captain
I have only ever heard of Woodcock's batting, never his bowling. Maybe he is one for the future.
 

Tim

Cricketer Of The Year
Tim McIntosh finishes leading run scorer for the 2002/2003 State Championship with 820 runs at an average of 58.57 so I think he is now a justified selection for the Sri Lankan tour.

It all makes sense really, 6 hundreds & 10 fifties to his name plus he opens with NZ test opener Mark Richardson for Auckland so Sir Richard if you're listening..McIntosh deserves a chance now.
 

Kiwi

State Vice-Captain
yeah i think tim mcintosh has sercured a place in the team but u never know with our selectors.
Craig Cumming ending up second with 751 @ 46.93( 3 100's and 3 50's) so he is certainly in the running.

Interesting to see that Fulton go quite high in the list. 628 runs @52.33.


In the bowling Tama Canning had the most wicket with 46. He is someone I forgot about. He may also be in the running. I think O'Connor, Butler and Bond will be the strike bowlers though.
 

Tim

Cricketer Of The Year
I think McIntosh & Cumming deserve to go. I've been especially impressed by Cumming because plain & simple he's a specialist..he goes out there & does the basics rather than a McMillan who throws the kitchen sink.

I think NZ's pace attack will also be O'Connor, Butler & Bond & they may take Mason too but I think there is also a need for 2 spinners in Sri Lanka so either O'Connor or Mason will miss out. The all-rounder spot is a close one because I think Oram, Adams, Walker & Canning are all competing for one, maybe two spots.
In the end I think they will take 2 all-rounders & I think they'll be Oram & Walker. Walker seems to be a bit more consistent with the bat.

While I was finally happy to see Fulton score runs, the 628 runs he scored were largely due to 1 innings of 300, however he scored 91 in the last innings against Central Districts to suggest that he could be an outside bet for the Sri Lanka tour, but probably unlikely.
 

anzac

International Debutant
I don't think the selectors will introduce too many new players to the squad - possibly a couple of batsmen and maybe one bowler. The rest of the squad will be made up of current players and some replacements for those out of form, from those players introduced on previous tours & others coming back from injury.

I don't expect to see too many changes / risks being taken as they will want to give themselves the best opportunity they can to come away from this series with points to secure their position on the table.

Does anyone know when the squad is due to be announced?

:)
 

Tim

Cricketer Of The Year
I think its going to be announced sometime at the end of this week maybe.
 

Tim

Cricketer Of The Year
Just adding to that, Andre Adams has already ruled himself out of the 2 test matches because of a recurring back-injury & I think the selectors may also take the chance now to give him some more time out of the ODI's aswell because of the injury & his lack of form in South Africa.

Hadlee has said that none of the players have signalled that they are concerned about travelling to Sri Lanka so that ends what might have been a problem side issue.

I've read a number of articles in newspaper now saying that Matt Horne is a near certainty for both squads to Sri Lanka. Im disappointed by this because although he's played very well for Auckland this season, he's been far too inconsistent for New Zealand over the years & I feel its time to move on to someone else.

Im not sure which way the selectors will go whether they will opt to keep McMillan, Vincent etc or elect for experienced players like Gary Stead, Matt Horne or even try youth like Rob Nicol & Jesse Ryder. I have a feeling that McMillan & Vincent may retain their spots in the test team, but I think they'll fail to make the ODI side.
What I don't want to see is a huge clean-out like Sri Lanka or South Africa have done..Sri Lanka have dropped their king-pin middle order (Jayawardene, Arnold & Sangakarra) aswell as losing De-Silva. South Africa of course have also been well documented.
 
Last edited:

Kiwi

State Vice-Captain
Alot of people I have talked to think McMillan will stay because of his experience and because Astle won't be there.

I think the selectors will find it very hard to overlook McIntosh though and I think he will replace Astle.

I think Ryder, Horne or Nicol will replace Vincent and then I am sure that they will drop Mills or Tuffey for Butler.
 

Tim

Cricketer Of The Year
I know McMillan 'apparently' has experience but when does he ever show it?, he gets to about 30 runs and then suddenly decides he wants to try a crazy shot like a reverse sweep or a scoop shot over the keepers head & gets out.

Why should players like Cumming, Nicol who are technically very good be told to keep scoring runs when McMillan is playing like there's no tommorow or like theres no other batsmen to replace him for that matter.

McMillan & Sinclair have very good hand/eye coordination but time & time again they get out in the first couple of overs they face because their feet are stuck in concrete at the crease. I think NZ can beat Sri Lanka because they seem to have lost the plot with players being axed left, right & centre. But they won't if they continue to have this problem of losing a couple of wickets in the first over of a match.
 

Tim

Cricketer Of The Year
I will be very surprised if the selectors ignore McIntosh.
His first class record is now 33 matches with an average of 40. 6 hundreds & 10 fifties.
33 first class matches is enough in my mind for him to have the right idea of what to expect at international level.
 

anzac

International Debutant
so far as I am aware, apart from the retirements, all of the changes that have been made by any country are in relation to ODI squads & not Test squads.

The new SL & PAK squads are in relation to the Sharjah Tourney & while there may be some flow on into Test squads I do not expect to see the same wholesale changes. I have a feeling that many of these current changes are to spell players that are out of form / injured / suffering burn out, much the same as we are looking at re Astle, Cairns, McMillan, Adams, Vincent etc.

I guess what I am trying to say is that the SL squad we may face in the Test series may not include these new players from the ODI squad.

:)
 

Tim

Cricketer Of The Year
To be honest I haven't really seen McIntosh in action but from what I can gather he is a mixture of Stephen Fleming & Mark Richardson, stylish & likes to occupy the crease.
 

Kiwi

State Vice-Captain
Yea he is quite a slow player. I don't think NZ would look to him in the One day department yet. I have heard he is quite 'correct'(in style) in his batting though.
 

anzac

International Debutant
bearing in mind that this series could have a bearing on our 3rd place in the table, the selectors are faced with a couple of questions:

- do they spell the players out of form (McMillan & Vincent) along with those with injuries etc (Astle, Cairns, Adams);

- is Vincent still their no1 choice to partner Richardson in the Tests?

If so then he may get the nod which will have an influence on the other batting selections. Another indicator may be the Auckland lineup & order when Richardson, McIntosh, Vincent & Horne are all available for selection in the longer game. Could give a clue as to options for coverage in the batting order & who may miss out etc.

As for the bowling Mills is an ODI specialist at this stage and is not in contention for the Test Squad. IMO it will be out of Bond, Oram & Tuffey from the Indian series, with Butler & O'Connor to join the mix.

I know nothing of the test pitches they will play on so I do not know if they will need to play 2 spinners or if they can get away with a 3-1 seam-spin attack. Bond is a must & I can not see them dropping Oram, and I would favour O'Connor unless Butler is in some hot form.

I have doubts about selecting a 2nd spinner if they are not good enough, unless the pitches will give generous assistance that can be exploited.

The 'allrounders' can be covered by Styris as a batting allrounder, and Oram as a bowling allrounder - although in reality neither is international class at this stage of their careers.

Another question re Macca - is he still the team Vice - Captain???? If so this could be a good indicator as to his future at least in the short term.

:)
 

Tim

Cricketer Of The Year
I cannot believe that NZ believe McMillan is a future captain, he is aggressive but his reckless batting & tendencies to lose his cool in the field are not what NZ would need.

I think Daniel Vettori should be given the vice-captaincy role or maybe Jacob Oram because he leads Central Districts very well. i think Daniel Vettori is going to be an outstanding captain, no not because he wears glasses but because he thinks about the game so much, you can see it when he bowls..he doesn't get much turn but he uses the field & his flight to work batsmen out & I reckon if NZ made him vice captain so he can under study to Fleming he'll be one of the best.
 
Last edited:

Tim

Cricketer Of The Year
I've just read at nzcricket.co.nz that television coverage may not happen here :( because the costs of showing the World Cup were so high (due to the fact that this time Sky TV showed 75% of all WC matches)

Apparently they are still negotiating, but there is a chance that we may only see the ODI's. I am more of a test fan these days probably because NZ seem to do better in that area of the game so this is disappointing & I hope Sky TV can get all coverage.
 

Kimbo

International Debutant
Its so annoying when you go pay heaps of extra money for all the sports channels and the sky dish etc, and then they dot even show what you want to see.

or they charge 20 bucks for big fights in boxing... or is it up to 25 now. i guess i dnt care about boxing at all but its cheeky...
 

Tim

Cricketer Of The Year
Right...well seeing the team is going to be named in the next couple of days im going to name what I think will be the ODI & Test sides respectively.

Tests:

Stephen Fleming (c)
Daniel Vettori (vc)
Robbie Hart (wk)
Mark Richardson
Shane Bond
Tim McIntosh
Scott Styris
Ian Butler
Jacob Oram
Mathew Sinclair
Shayne O'Connor
Daryl Tuffey
Matt Horne
Bruce Martin

I guess there are a couple of surprises in that list... Bruce Martin, he has the best bowling stats for a spinner in NZ so logically he should be the backup for Vettori. I went for Matt Horne because he can cover both opener & middle order batsman although I won't be surprised if NZ pick Craig Cumming/Richard Jones to do the same or even Rob Nicol just to be a specialist 4/5 batsman. Craig McMillan is the key talking point, I think if he doesn't make the test squad they won't bother carting him all the way over to Sri Lanka for the ODI's, because if he's not good enough to play ODI's at the moment he should be nowhere near the test team.

ODI Team:

Stephen Fleming (c)
Chris Cairns (vc)
Daniel Vettori
Shane Bond
Ian Butler
Paul Hitchcock
Scott Styris
Brendon McCullum (wk)
Mathew Sinclair
Matt Horne
Jacob Oram
Bruce Martin
Chris Harris
Chris Nevin (wk)

This was a very hard team to pick, I think some players are going to be axed in the wake of the selectors reacting to public opinion. It still looks far too all-rounderish for my liking but I think this is the likely team with Bruce Martin probably the only ?.
I think Kyle Mills will miss out & thats extremely unlucky because Mills is probably being judged on his 1 match he played against Canada, I think the selectors are going to pick Hitchcock instead & claim dropping Hitchcock was a mistake.
They'll take McCullum because if they didn't he would really take it hard...he wasn't too bad at the World Cup with the bat, but not good either. His wicket-keeping was very good up until that in-excusable dropped chance that Dravid gave to him.
Chris Nevin will come in but I don't think he'll keep, he will probably become a specialist opener.
I doubt they'll pick Andre Adams..pretty much because he's out of form & they'll use the excuse that his back injury was too much of a risk on the tour.

---------------

I guess in summary I like the look of the test team, although if I had my way i'd pick Ryder, Nicol & Cumming ahead of Horne, Sinclair etc but the teams I picked were from a selectors point of view & I'd like to think i'll be 90% correct when they announce the teams.
 

Top