-Quicken up a bit, he is around the same height as Bond and judging by how far he can hit a ball he has some muscle too. He has a good record when it comes to injuries IIRC. So upping the pace should be OK. Accuracy could be a problem but that can be worked on.
I'm a big, big fan of James Franklin - he's got the sort of personality that's missing in much of world cricket these days (the facial expressions that he strikes are worth the admission money alone sometimes!) but I have to disagree with you in much of what you say.
Yes. It would be
great if Jimmy could 'quicken up a bit' and bowl in the 140-150kmph bracket but I think this is wishful thinking rather than anything I'd expect from him. He has remained relatively injury free in his career so far, but remember that we are comparing him to the long list of Kiwi Krocks which seems to go back for years - Bond, O'Connor, Tuffey, Nash, Cairns and even Vettori! Frankly, the fact that Jimmy seems to be able to stay vaguely fit means that we should wrap him up in cotton wool and protect him to allow us some consistancy in our bowling attack before attempting to get another 10km of pace out of him and breaking his back!! Secondly, Jimmy is
incredibly inconsistant. He can be unplayable one game and unhittable the next (I think I've said this before). Also, there are neurological question marks over him with seemingly no apparent traceable cause for his migraine problems. This is just the question marks over his bowling.
As for his batting, let's be clear about this - he is NOT a batsman. England are seeing the problems with trying to crowbar such a batsman into the number six position when really the player is a glorified number 7 or 8 who's had a period of sustained form with Andrew Flintoff. Whilst (in my opinion) Franklin is a technically more proficient batsman than the leaden footed Flintoff, he should be batting no higher than 7. We currently have three incumbents suited for number 7 (Franklin, Vettori and McCullum). Franklin could easily bat above Vettori in
ODIs where Vettori can be a little one-dimensional with the bat. However, in test matches in particular, Vettori provides a reliability and solidity that I've not witnessed in a number 7/8 batsman in a very long time. Franklin bats where he should bat given, and this is crucial, the other players in our team. Franklin
should be a number 7, but he has to bat below Vettori and McCullum in tests and McCullum in ODIs. I'd rather 'waste' Franklin's batting than the others.
One point I do agree on is questioning what the hell NZC do about player fitness and injury prevention. We could have won so many more games over the past 10 years if we'd had our premier bowling line up fit for every game. Given how soft and forgiving the pitches are in NZ compared to, say, Australia, I am amazed that we suffer from (it seems) so many more significant injury problems than our mates across the Tasman.