Test veterans go for gold with Islamabad
BRENDON McCullum may have had cold-blooded revenge on his mind yesterday when confirming one last tussle with Australia will be his final hurrah in international cricket.
The New Zealand skipper is already 0-2 against the Aussies this year following his World Cup final meltdown and the Test series loss that went down to the wire last month in Adelaide.
McCullum will rightly go down as a statesman of Black Caps cricket, but on this side of the ditch at least he is risking a forgettable record as Australia’s bunny.
That’s why teammates will not be short on motivation when they fight in February to turn McCullum’s fortunes around and make it third time lucky against the Aussies and a fairytale Test series send-off into retirement.
The 34-year-old has been as explosive and damaging as any batsman in world cricket over the past decade, but against Australia he has consistently failed across 14 Test matches.
McCullum averaged just 27 in the recent Test series loss this summer, but that was in fact an improvement on his career average against Australia of 26.
Mitchell Starc blasting a charging McCullum’s stumps out of the ground in the first over of the World Cup final was symbolic of a man who has spread the gospel of New Zealand cricket around the globe but has never been able to stop the wheels falling off against big brother across the ditch.
However, those statistics and bad memories could all be erased if the Black Caps triumph in the RECENTLY retired Australian Test veterans Shane Watson and Brad Haddin have been picked up by Dean Jones’ Islamabad in the inaugural Pakistan Super League draft.
Watson was taken as an “icon player” in the third pick for $US200,000 ($A280,000) on Monday, with Haddin joining him at Islamabad after going in the fifth round for $US70,000.
The team is set to be coached by former champion Australian batsman Jones.
Retired Australian paceman Brett Lee was from the platinum category, while diamond players Brad Hodge, Brad Hogg, Shaun Tait, James Allenby and Nathan Hauritz were also overlooked, as were Ben Laughlin and Michael Beer in the gold category. Popular Pakistan star Shahid Afridi went first in the draft, taken by Peshawar, while Shaob Malik (Karachi), Kevin Pietersen (Quetta) and Chris Gayle (Lahore) completed the top five.
The league opted for a draft system, with players split into platinum, diamond, gold and silver categories, rather than the auctions favoured by other Twenty20 leagues, notably the Indian Premier League.
2The only thing less predictable than a Kendrick wrong-un is a Far North weather forecast. The belief that teams must stockpile points when the going is good before Christmas has never appeared more true given predictions of weather impediments after the break range from “chance of showers” to ‘don’t even bother’.
5No team is yet to put on 50 for an opening stand in the face of United’s steady bowling attack. A 47-run dig by Tully in round 7 and 46 by Norths in round 8 significantly upped the average of rivals, a clear indication of just what has been behind United’s rise to fourth on the ladder.