While on the subject of Butler & Marshall.......
Just thinking about it I was wondering if they were some sort of failed experiment by NZ cricket to emulate the Australian program of introducing young players to International cricket.
The Aussies seem to introduce a newbie each season for a match or 2 during a series, and then leave them out for a while b4 re-introducing them again, and then repeating the dosage. By the time they have to step up for consideration for a regular spot a couple of years down the track (as a result of retirement or injury etc), the Aussies have a pool of players with some International experience to choose from - usually about half a dozen games or so.
Recent years have seen the likes of Maher, Love, Bracken, Lee & Bichel (both now regulars), Hogg, Hauritz, Watson, Williams & even Symonds & Lehman to a lesser extent. Now this year we have seen Katich & Clarke introduced to develop cover re Lehman's role in the sides, while Williams & Bracken have had recalls to fill the gaps created by injuries. They seem to do this more with younger players making their debuts rather than older players or those with more domestic competition.
The NZ experiment may have become derailed as a result of the injury crisis & problems regarding the ODI side, as both Butler & Marshall were initially identified with the longer game. The other problem for NZ cricket with trying to copy the Australian system is that the domestic competition is not as strong. To have the same long term benefits the NZ players would have to make up for the lack in the domestic competition with regular / constant inclusion in the likes of 'A' Team tours etc, which is not easy to achieve financially either for the players or NZ Cricket, as well as the requirement to be Away from Home so often with little reward or coverage.
As a consequence NZ Cricket seems to have gone away from introducing young developing batsmen (another problem with truncated tours), and recent selections have opted for older specialists in the precieved problem areas (Horne, Jones). The other thing the Aussies tend to do when introducing a new batsman is to play them down the order in a position where there is less pressure on them to make or break a game, rather than the position where they may have come to attention in domestic cricket.
As this is one of my pet peeves regarding the use & abuse of young & developing players, I hope that the recent selections of Butler & Marshall is an effort by NZ Cricket to address their past indescretions regarding the likes of these players. Furthermore I'd rather see an 'established' player be promoted in the order, rather than have some youngster thrown in driectly into the firing line - Rutherford, McCullum et all. I only hope that at some stage Franklin may get a similar opportunity again, especially in the longer game for which he was originally identified but not used.
IMO this is one area NZ Cricket needs to work hard at if they hope to maintain their current level in International cricket, or to improve upon it. It's commonly referred to as 'succession planning' & IMO is one of the reasons why Australian cricket is so strong even with a 3rd string bowling attack or such.
) would been crucial and probably have done well in India and Sri Lanka. 
8D 