Volts’ batteries need recharge
OPINION: New Zealand Cricket has an issue on its hands and it’s not to do with the Black Caps.
The Otago Volts men are in the midst of another miserable summer, with unrest in the dressing room and several players weighing up their futures for next season.
Test seamer Neil Wagner has bought a home in Mount Maunganui and may have played his last match for the association.
Former Black Caps allrounder Jimmy Neesham is another understood to be unhappy and it would be little shock if he returned to his hometown Auckland Aces for
2018-19. Neesham declined to comment when contacted.
Otago finished rock bottom in all forms last summer and a repeat effort could be on the cards. They were last in both the
Twenty20 and one-day competitions and sit fifth in the Plunket Shield, having not won since the opening round in late October. Over the past two summers, the Volts have a dismal record, winning 12, losing 33, and drawing six matches across the three forms.
Just as alarming as the side’s bleak on-field results, is what’s going on off it. Some prominent Otago cricketing figures share grave concerns about the state of the team. In April 2016, former coach Nathan King was forced out by the players after a scathing end of season review, one year into his two-year contract.
He was replaced by Rob Walter, who previously guided the Eastern Titans and was conditioning and fielding coach of the South African national side. Walter hasn’t been able to deliver consistent performances and his position must be under scrutiny.
The buck rests with Otago Cricket Association boss Mike Coggan and the board and they need to be answerable and provide some long-term solutions.
Coggan declined to comment, other than to say it had been ‘‘disappointing’’ consecutive seasons from the Volts and a thorough independent review of the season would be conducted in early April.
It hasn’t appeared a unified Volts camp this summer, which comes as no surprise given the team’s lack of success.
Senior players Neesham, Wagner, Hamish Rutherford, Neil Broom and Mark Craig, all past and present New Zealand test players, were dropped during stages of the T20 Super Smash.
Captain Rob Nicol, brought down from Auckland to provide experience and grit at the top of the order, carried the water bottles as 12th man in a recent Plunket Shield match, another bemusing sight.
You only need to watch the Volts’ body language on video replays of dismissals on the New Zealand Cricket website to detect their frustration and dissatisfaction. Arguments with umpires and the opposition, bats being swished angrily, and batsmen not departing in a timely manner when out are regular sights.
Less than a decade ago, Otago led the way in domestic cricket with Mike Hesson as coach and Brendon McCullum blazing away in the limited overs forms.
McCullum belted 170 in the
2007-08 one-day final to lead them to their first 50-over silverware in
20 years. Otago were men’s T20 champions in 2008-09 and 2012-13, and qualified for several finals, even as recently as 2015-16.
The Volts went to the defunct Champions League T20 in India in 2009 and 2013, narrowly missing the semifinals in their second appearance at the lucrative tournament. Those prosperous days are but a distant memory.
Otago’s high performance arm isn’t churning out the quality of players it once did. The province’s under-17 and under-19 men’s teams were last in their respective age-group tournaments this summer, further highlighting the association’s problems.
Southland quick Jacob Duffy looked a Black Cap-in-waiting in his early years of domestic cricket, but has regressed in the Volts system. Talented allrounder Josh Finnie, a Dunedin lad and member of New Zealand’s under-19 World Cup side in 2014, hasn’t kicked on either. One only hopes the same doesn’t happen with 19-year-old North Otago pace bowler Nathan Smith, one of Otago’s brightest young prospects.
Due to the small population in the Volts’ catchment area and poor standard of club cricket in Dunedin and surrounding regions, Otago has long been reliant on bringing in out of town talent.
Players who have struggled for regular opportunities at other associations have tended to migrate to Dunedin.
Anaru Kitchen, Neesham (Auckland) and Brad Wilson (Northern Districts) have been reliable contributors, but the Volts need to be more proactive with their recruiting and target higher calibre players to plug their deficiencies.
The domestic contracting system favours a team like Otago, who should be gunning for players ranked lowly by the other major associations (MAs) or who miss out in the first round of contracting. The Volts have become a basket case and it’s a predicament NZC can’t ignore.