Young NZ spinners to go to SL for Development

[Kiwi]

Heres a piece of the Christchurch Press that I find interesting:
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New Zealand Cricket is likely to send two young spin bowlers to Sri Lanka with the Black Caps tour next week to assist their development.

Concerned at the dearth of quality spin bowlers in the New Zealand game, NZC wants to broaden the experience base of the spinners by exposing them to Sri Lankan conditions where the wickets favour the slower bowlers.

Operations manager John Reid said two promising spinners at first-class level would be selected with Bruce Martin (Northern Districts), Aaron Redmond (Canterbury), and Luke Woodcock (Wellington) in contention.

New Zealand's slim spin stocks were highlighted when Paul Wiseman was recalled for the tour with a bowling average from the past season of 49.1.

Reid said NZC was very concerned about the lack of slow bowling talent not just at first-class level but through most tiers of the game.

He said the two players picked would be attached to the Black Caps but not part of the official team.

NZC's coaching staff believed the move would be a win-win situation. It gave the Black Caps batsmen more opportunity to play more spinners during net sessions while assisting in the young players development.

"They will learn about conditions overseas and what is required."

The players will be paid for by NZC and it is expected they will return home after the two-test series in early May.

Reid said the idea came from a brainstorming session by coaching staff, had merit and was taken further.

"We have a problem with that area of our game and some times have to take innovative measures to improve it."

He said pitch conditions in New Zealand did not necessarily suit spinners nor were they always bowled enough.

New Zealand's next tour, to India during October, is also a country which favours spin bowlers.

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Good move by NZ. But isn't it a bit late. This should have been done a couple of years ago. I think that Woodcock and Redmond wil be the ones that travel.

[Langeveldt]

Surely with Vettori you are well served for a number of years to come...But good to plan for the future i suppose, and if there are no backup spinners then good luck to them...
Looks a lot healthier than the English and SA spin cupboards though

[Tim]

Well at least NZ Cricket is showing some initiative by doing this.
I reckon Bruce Martin is the certainty & maybe Redmond because he's the leggie?

[Kiwi]

I have just been looking at the profiles of these players and see that they are all under 25. I thought Martin was older but I must have been getting him confused with some one else. I now think He will be one that goes.

All the bowlers turn the ball away for the Right hander. I would like to see an Offie partnering Vettori but it looks like we don't have anyone.

If we see any of the players looking good then hopefully we will see Wiseman staying at home for the Indian tour.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Bruce Martin
FIRST-CLASS
Batting 558runs @ 19.24
Bowling 89wick @ 30.50 BB= 7-33 EC= 2.56

LIST A LIMITED OVERS
Batting 93runs @ 9.30
Bowling 22wick @ 25.68 BB =3-28 EC= 3.42
------------------------------------------------------------------
Luke Woodcock

FIRST-CLASS
Batting 461runs @ 24.26
Bowling 10wick @ 32.70 BB =4-3 EC= 2.31

Has not yet played any LIST A LIMITED OVERS
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Aaron Redmond
FIRST-CLASS
Batting 1240runs @ 25.30
Bowling 46wick @ 43.78 BB =4-35 EC = 2.94

LIST A LIMITED OVERS

Batting 266runs @ 13.30
Bowling 6wick @ 50.16 BB= 2-46 EC= 4.30
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Points:
*Only Martin looks like a One day player
*Woodcocks Profile also had 'Wicketkeeper' in it.
*Redmond has played alot of games for Canterbury As a Middle order batter.
*Woodcock also plays more as a batter and is only in his second season of State cricket

[Tim]

Redmond's bowling averages are poor to say the least, its going to be hard to turn him into an international spinner.

It's interesting that they've discarded Brooke Walker, but that relieves me because he's never cut it at the top level.

[anzac]

I don't know that Walker would have been in contention for selection - it seems that this is sort of a development squad thing for future prospects.

Walker has been on the scene for some time and made his debut on that ill-fated tour to Zim & SA some years ago!

I think the selectors would idealy like to have some variety in their spin attack to partner Vettori - hence the previous selection of Walker & now the recall of Wiseman.

Just as a footnote - hopefully we will see the pitches improve next year re pace & bounce (without such pronounced sideways movement), and this should also go some ways to helping develop spin bowling re use of bounce & flight (Kumble relies on these rather than prodigeous turn)!

[lord_of_darkness]

I think its not some great brainstorming thinking .. done .. bit too late , although its good to hear such an inetiative is FINALLY taken ...

i think many ppl around have been telling stuff

eg if India wants better faster bowlers send their good fast bowlers to train in Australian or English acadamies were they can train up on the proper pitches and same for the batsmen

So New Zealand should have really thought of this long time ago , would have given us a big edge... i think they should go lower take ppl like me who are doing well at this time , and before we think of changing career or something else wrong happens mould us right now for the future , so think if ppl like me get training from 16 after getting good performances we would be someone else with the likes of training at say Indian bowling academies were u can be taught by good spinners such as Bishen Bedi etc

[anzac]

It would be really good for the game internationally if the ICC took this up and worked with key nations to develop specialist acadamies for specialist roles - seam bowling, spin, batting, pitches etc.

That way other nations could better develop their resources rather than having to fund a 'full' acadamy domestically for their development.

Hopefully this would also go some ways to decreasing the gap between the nations so far as resources and abilities are concerned - so we would not see soooooo many 3 1/2 day Tests!!!.

[Kiwi]

The NZ Acadamy is good but ALL the training is done indoors on concrete. This is not great for the development of any bowler as it doesn't give the correct bounce and turn/seam. It also gives bowlers more injuries(running on hard surface).

[lord_of_darkness]

oh is the NZ academy like that?

no wonder we dont have any that good ppl coming out of the academy , if u want to produce good players u have to make them play in those conditions , i think they should build some 4-5 real pitches in the academy and maintain them as in 1 with good bounce and carry eg aus and s.a , one with cracks etc eg subcontinent , one with sideways movements and bounce eg nz , to a bit eng like that

why isint it possible to do something like that ? we cant say our country ( nz ) is poor at all ,or say is underfunded, i doubt if it takes much to do something like this , cause in return its reapin benefits for us , and im sure the benefits will be huge

[Kiwi]

I think the problem is that NZ can't produce a great pitch with good bounce and carry etc. If the Acadamy was run during the summer then they probably would do more outdoors but it is run for April to October for the men.

Also the acadamy is not about having a net every day. It is drop and drives and throw downs the whole time. It is looking at your bowling action or batting action and creating timing and power rather than having a practise facing the bowlers or bowling to the batters.

They also work alot on game plans, fitness, captaincy etc.

I am guessing that towards the end of the season there, they will put everything into a net session and hope that none of the bad habits come back.

From everyone that has gone into the Acadamy, Huge improvements have been made a few that come to mind are Ryder, Styris etc. If they put in the time they will improve big time as they have all the best coaches in NZ and from other countries there. I do know that a few people get sick of training for 3 hours a day and give up.

The NZ womens coach says that certainly for the batting the indoors are better as that is the closest that they can produce to a hard Australian wicket. The ball does sit up and had good carry. Those nets are fast as well.

[Cloete]

it's about time NZ staretd looking into their spinners. they only have 1 good spinner!! who averages 35 in ODI's and about that in tests.

[lord_of_darkness]

yea i saw in the wlcup and it shows dans avg when he came up to bowl and i couldnt believe my eyes when it showed up somewhere like 38.

it was hard to believe that our country's premier spinner's avg isint that great although figures may not show , dan is a real good bowler for nz and has done well throughought his career i must say !

[marc71178]

You can draw a lot of parallels between him and Giles IMO.

[Tim]

Well the 2 confirmed spinners are Bruce Martin & Jeetan Patel from Wellington.