**Official** New Zealand Domestic Season 2013/2014

[Flem274*]

Brad Wilson, Daniel Flynn, Joe Carter, Daryl Mitchell, Anton Devcich, Scott Styris, Scott Kuggeleijn, Jono Boult, Ish Sodhi, Anurag Verma, Graeme Aldridge, James Baker, Cam Fletcher, Jono Hickey, Tamati Clarke, Tim Seifert, Bharat Popli, Brett Hampton, Tony Goodin, Mitchell Santner, Joe Walker to just name a few. Oh and then you have the likes of Kane Williamson, Corey Anderson, Daniel Vettori, BJ Watling, Tim Southee and Trent Boult.

Yeah I think we might be alright...

Lol you're either pulling my leg (most likely) or you have a very pink eyepatch (also a good shout).

Setting aside the issue of test players not playing more than a few games per season and in two cases being unable to live off stealing the finest talent to come from Canterbury and Auckland forever for the moment, listing a bunch of mediocre second XI standard players like Devcich (take the bait Anton) doesn't really help your case. Split those players you've listed up into two sides and you have last and second to last for the new competition. I could sit here and reel off the CD squad plus fringe players like Smidt, Small, McClure, Robinson and MacDougall and it would be just as poor an argument.

If anyone deserves two teams, it's Auckland. They've been supplying a steady stream of FC standard cricketers to the provinces for a while now. They've disappointed a bit when it comes to producing test players (very good limited overs produce though) but they produce a lot of decent players who are important to their adopted sides while still maintaining a competitive if not successful home team.

 

[Kippax]

Yeah I can't see a private cricket franchise ever being a genuine 'pride and joy' type of deal in Auckland tbh, let alone two. I think you'd stand a better chance of avoiding that whole rest home/out to stud vibe that Auckland and Wellington suffer from if you put a side in a quite prosperous smaller town of <150,000, like Tauranga.

When you think of Auckland cricket you think of the whole Beige Brigade podcast vibe. Sort of indolent cat-like guys who were tipping a quite proud and reluctant-to-leave Papatoetoe kid in Sodhi into a recycling bin with their wine bottles, until Vettori and Bradburn walked along the street and fished him out.

 

[Flem274*]

Problem is though the Hawke Cup teams which represent those small towns would get dicked by the Firebucks or the Wizvolts (or just the current teams) unless they had their internationals. Manawatu have produced Taylor, Oram, How, Milne, Small, Worker etc but take away the big guns like Taylor and they just don't cut it.

The only reason ND would ever get two sides is because they have too much administrative power in the current environment. Had this been floated a decade earlier Canterbury would be gunning for the same.

At least when ND get their way Hiini might be representing the franchise containing Waikato Valley as a **** you to Howsie. It's all I ask for.

 

[Bahnz]

Even by your standards Kippax that 2nd paragraph is great.

 

[Howsie]

Lol you're either pulling my leg (most likely) or you have a very pink eyepatch (also a good shout).

Setting aside the issue of test players not playing more than a few games per season and in two cases being unable to live off stealing the finest talent to come from Canterbury and Auckland forever for the moment, listing a bunch of mediocre second XI standard players like Devcich (take the bait Anton) doesn't really help your case. Split those players you've listed up into two sides and you have last and second to last for the new competition. I could sit here and reel off the CD squad plus fringe players like Smidt, Small, McClure, Robinson and MacDougall and it would be just as poor an argument.

If anyone deserves two teams, it's Auckland. They've been supplying a steady stream of FC standard cricketers to the provinces for a while now. They've disappointed a bit when it comes to producing test players (very good limited overs produce though) but they produce a lot of decent players who are important to their adopted sides while still maintaining a competitive if not successful home team.

Carter, Hickey, Santner and Popli would all be playing regular first class cricket if they were playing somewhere else. It's still very similar here as it was two years ago, except now we have the depth in our batting not bowling. Scott Kuggeleijn was playing for Hamilton "B" before he went down to Wellington, a month later he's playing first class cricket. Daryl Mitchell was much the same, could've easily been playing first class cricket 12 months earlier but just couldn't crack the team. Fast forward 18 months and he's already gone away on tour with New Zealand A.

 

[Kippax]

Manawatu/Wanganui/Taranaki could almost make a decent "Western Provinces" side, allowing Hawkes Bay to depart from CD with Cachopa, KNB, Hay etc. From the top of my head...

Jamie How
Dean Robinson
Ben Smith
Ross Taylor
Will Young
James MacDougall or some other youngster
Dane Cleaver
Some Spinner
Roald Badenhorst
Adam Milne
Bevan Small

Nethula's a Manawatu player this season. This is the better way to go about fixing the Stags probably, thinking of them as very localised yokels, and laying on a very localised first step to greatness. Take the HRV to eight teams, seven or eight consequential rounds before the finals. All the fun of the fair as Otago try to lift their NRR against Western Provinces.

Other new teams:

Bay of Plenty Tumblrs

Flynn
Carter
Williamson
Anderson
Popli
Clarke
Hampton
Fletcher
T Boult
J Boult
Aldridge

The Northern Homekill

Devcich
Southee
Hickey
Watling
Mitchell
Kuggs
Seifert
Sodhi
Santner
Verma
Baker

 

[BackFootPunch]

That's an outstanding choke from Wellington to let the Volts go top of the table. 55 off 4 overs then couldn't get 7 off the last. Must have been excellent bowling from Duffy though.

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

That's an outstanding choke from Wellington to let the Volts go top of the table. 55 off 4 overs then couldn't get 7 off the last. Must have been excellent bowling from Duffy though.

3 off the last 2 balls, no less.

 

[Athlai]

Napier WAC

 

[hendrix]

heart Duffy but please don't play him in t20 internationals. He's our next test 3rd seamer. Well, in 2-3 years anyway.

 

[khodder]

Please tell me that there are people here that are concerned that three of the top 5 run scorers in the Plunket Shield this season are ex-Test players who were dropped because of their lack of quality at that level? Guptill, Flynn, Papps.

Cast your eye down just a little further down the run scoring charts at you get your Brownlies, Van Wyk and Redmond appearences all inside the top 12 run scorers in First Class cricket this season...

 

[Immenso]

Please tell me that there are people here that are concerned that three of the top 5 run scorers in the Plunket Shield this season are ex-Test players who were dropped because of their lack of quality at that level? Guptill, Flynn, Papps.

Cast your eye down just a little further down the run scoring charts at you get your Brownlies, Van Wyk and Redmond appearences all inside the top 12 run scorers in First Class cricket this season...

No, I'm not concerned, I would say that is to be expected.
NZ never have 6 test class batsmen at the same time, so plenty of FC players get the chance to audition (and often fail) for the other 2 or 3 'vacant' spots.

Of the 3 you mention: 2 are young enough to potentially make changes to areas exposed by their time in test cricket, while the other has made some technical changes but whether he gets the chance to try them in test cricket is quite slim.

Compare to Sheffield Shield currently; North, White, Hughes are the top 3 run scorers. This is pretty normal.

Anyway IMO plenty of young batsmen are making decent progress, or playing significant in innings, so far this PS season (Latham, Young, Raval, M Bracewelll, Carter, Mitchell).
(and Pollard, although I'm not sure I rate him as decent)

 

[Blain]

Duffy needs some guns and be able to bowl over 135 to be considered as a 3rd seamer. He wont trouble anyone in internationals as a late 120 bowler with an older ball.

I'm more keen on Milne, Wheeler, Bennett, McCleneghan (if he produces performances in FC cricket first of course) and Small as 3rd seamers. Where has Small been? Hope his injuries are coming right.

BTW, Henry isnt there because he would take the new ball, of course . How about a 3 opening bowler rotation, screw the traditional 2 bowler partnership. I would love to see how that would work. Just means guys will be switching ends every new over they start.

 

[SteveNZ]

Carter, Hickey, Santner and Popli would all be playing regular first class cricket if they were playing somewhere else. It's still very similar here as it was two years ago, except now we have the depth in our batting not bowling. Scott Kuggeleijn was playing for Hamilton "B" before he went down to Wellington, a month later he's playing first class cricket. Daryl Mitchell was much the same, could've easily been playing first class cricket 12 months earlier but just couldn't crack the team. Fast forward 18 months and he's already gone away on tour with New Zealand A.

Where would these four be playing FC cricket, pray tell? Popli played for Papatoetoe in AKL for 2-3 seasons and never made a scratch of impact, never got near 2nd XI. Very limited player. Joe Carter I'll give you, Hickey might play List A elsewhere but I doubt four-dayers, and Santner..I'm sure most other provinces have a left-arm spinner that doesn't turn it, averages 50 with the ball and 7 with the bat. In fact all provinces probably have 2 better options in that regard that I could easily list off.

 

[straw man]

Read this article on CD: Ian Snook: Perfect Time For Changes In The Hierarchy... | Stuff.co.nz

With things pretty much as low as they can get sitting at the bottom of the HRV Cup and the Plunket Shield, there is every excuse to make some significant changes and start making them right now.

Some decisions will be simple. Send home the two Englishmen, Peter Trego and Joshua Cobb, who do not fulfil the necessary requirement of "being better than what is already available," stop spending extra money on Jacob Oram and rest Jamie How for a few weeks leading in to the Plunket Shield.

There are many capable young bowlers as batsmen with Doug Bracewell and Adam Milne being chased hard by Ben Wheeler, Roald Badenhorst, Andrew Mathieson and Bevan Small. The talent is definitely available. The big changes need to be in the squad preparation and the trial systems in operation for squad selection.

Definitely agree CD aren't making the most of their bowling talent, in particular since Bond left to become national bowling coach. You'd think with Bracewell, Milne and Wheeler to work with they'd be doing better than last in the PS and the fact they're all averaging 35+ can't be put down to flat pitches. Tbh Trego does seem to be doing a reasonable job for them with both bat and ball, as unfashionable as he is, and should be a good foil for the younger bowlers. But I really want to see progression from those three and it definitely doesn't seem to be happening for Milne and Bracewell (though it may be more complicated by their NZ involvement); maybe some improvement from Wheeler though.

In the end though it's their batting that's let them down - some bad collapses with How, Carlchopa and KNB all struggling leaves them reliant on KVW and the bowlers for a bailout. A big fall for a side that, led by Sinclair, was probably the best FC batting side in the country for most of the last five years.

Rest of the article talks about feeding into the CD side, though it looks to me that CD isn't finding it difficult to get good raw recruits, but rather in developing them once they're in the side.

 

[Flem274*]

Why we're investing in Cobb mystifies me. He's not a New Zealander and he isn't scoring any runs.

Trego has been good but playing both him and KNB stuffs up team balance, and Chops is good enough to be the 5th bowler as well. Hay is missing out for one of those blokes and even if you think he's overrated he's good enough to play FC cricket.

Would also sub out Mathieson for Small at the first opportunity. Mathieson is talented but he's really, really raw. In HRV cup games his pace is all over the place and so are his deliveries, so I think he needs some polishing. Has the goods though, just needs someone to help him out behind the scenes.

 

[khodder]

Seems like Otago A and Auckland A have better places to be;

Otago A rolled for less than 50 in a T20 Game. Auckland A for less than 70.

 

[Jarquis]

Crying at Napier (Graham's performance, I'm not sat in the place in tears). 4 overs for 41 and the 0 off 2 as your side lose by 1. Good going champ.

 

[Kippax]

From the vault footage, it seems the Wuzids solved their sizeable cricket ground problem at Hagley not so much with the adoption of Watling's runscoring methods, but by moving the ropes right in. Haha typical.

 

[Kippax]

Teams for the TV game on shortly -

SKYCITY Northern Knights squad vs Auckland Aces:

Daniel Flynn (captain)

Jonathan Boult

Trent Boult

Anton Devcich

Luke Feldman

Daniel Harris

Scott Kuggeleijn

Daryl Mitchell

Ish Sodhi

Scott Styris

BJ Watling

Kane Williamson

Gareth Hopkins (Captain) (Parnell)
Michael Bates (Suburbs New Lynn)
Craig Cachopa (Takapuna)
Colin de Grandhomme (Howick Pakuranga)
James Fuller (Overseas professional)
Donovan Grobbelaar (Howick Pakuranga)
Anaru Kitchen (Waitakere City)
Bruce Martin (Parnell)
Kyle Mills (Howick Pakuranga)
Chris Nash (Overseas professional)
Jeet Raval (Suburbs New Lynn)
Jono Sole (Takapuna)