Black Caps’ rocky road
The selectors have seen enough. And that’s fortunate, because between now and their World Cup opener against Sri Lanka on June 1 the Black Caps play no one-day internationals.
It’s difficult to fathom a leadup to a pinnacle world tournament with no official matches in that format for 14 weeks, and does little for New Zealand’s chances of making an eighth World Cup semifinal. It simply shows the power and financial pull of the Indian Premier League.
New Zealand Cricket confirmed in November it would release its players for the entire IPL – which runs from March 23 until around May 15 – unlike powerhouses India, Australia and England who are restricting their players’ involvement. Eight likely Black Caps cup squad members, plus fringe men Ish Sodhi and Adam Milne, are IPLbound after the third test against Bangladesh in Christchurch.
Purely it’s down to money, and a key part of the Master Agreement with the NZ Cricket Players’ Association, which enables stars such as Kane Williamson and Trent Boult to take leave and more than double their annual NZC earnings of around $400,000. Australia’s highest-paid player, by contrast, banks over $3 million annually without offshore Twenty20 earnings.
It also means Australia’s cup buildup is on a different level. As New Zealand play a seriously underwhelming three tests against Bangladesh, Australia contest backto-back away series of five ODIs against India and Pakistan, finishing on March 31, then release their IPL players and require them to return for a Brisbane camp in early May.
New Zealand are pencilled in for three 50-over Brisbane warmup matches against an Australian XI – likely to feature returning stars Steve Smith and David Warner – in the first week of May.
Take out New Zealand’s IPL players and it leaves Ross Taylor, Henry Nicholls, Tom Latham, Jimmy Neesham and Matt Henry of the cup frontliners.
‘‘It would be lovely to be in a position to say ‘stay at home’. But we’re not and we can’t compete with the IPL dollars, that’s just the reality,’’ coach Gary Stead told Stuff last year.
Stead will have the IPL bowlers on prescribed workloads with their T20 franchises in the nets, but it’s not the same as a competitive 50-over match situation.
That won’t happen until the squad assemble in mid-May and play warmup matches against India at The Oval on May 25, and West Indies at Bristol three days later.
Selection-wise, they’ve shown their hand and Doug Bracewell and Ish Sodhi are set to be the unluckiest two. The 14 who beat a hugely disappointing Bangladesh 3-0, with the addition of backup gloveman Tim Seifert, looks the cup squad.
The polarising Colin Munro will go as backup batsman who can bowl a bit, and Todd Astle’s tidy solitary outing against Bangladesh suggests his name is inked in too. In a tight race with Sodhi, Astle’s batting gets him over the line as the selectors covet multi-skilled players.
What did we learn from the Bangladesh ODIs? The top-five looks a lot more secure with Nicholls and Guptill at the top, and Tim Southee will push Henry hard to be Boult’s new ball partner in the top XI.
The likely 6-7-8 axis of Neesham, Colin de Grandhomme and Mitchell Santner could be the difference between another semifinal berth and heading home early.
Neesham and de Grandhomme are the key batting finishers with a platform. They need to really hurt opposition bowlers at the death.
With the ball New Zealand need to find ways to strike in the middle stages, via the all-rounders, spinners and Lockie Ferguson with his pace and yorkers. A worrying trend developed against India and Bangladesh, who were let off the hook after inroads from the new ball duo.
It’s been an up and down buildup for New Zealand. We won’t know how they’re tracking for another three months, then hope they don’t slip on any cup banana skins in the form of Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan in their first three very winnable matches before the big ones loom.