New Zealand cricket battles hard to keep reputation

Ray Petersen -

After a 5-0 drubbing in the recent T20 series against India, and a sober thrashing at the hands of a rampant Australia, cricket in the shaky isles is in need of a severe shake-up, or it will lose the benefit of all it gained during the Mike Hesson coached, Brendon McCullum captained, era.

Yes, they have been unlucky with injuries, with Kane Williamson, Trent Boult, and Lachie Ferguson’s absences being keenly felt, but the current outfit’s form presided over by long-serving Cantabrian Gary Stead is plummeting so fast, and injuries are coming so thick and fast after a decade of positive results, a lot of questions are being asked of the hierarchy, on and off the pitch.

Coach Stead was the archetypical brick wall as a player who only played five Tests, on top of 101 first-class matches, ironically, he never appealed at his time in the Test arena as a solution, but as a dour, stoical fighter. Fellow Cantab and batting coach Peter Fulton scored centuries in both innings against England in 2013, but otherwise had a fairly dismal Test record. Australian Shane Jurgensen was touted as ‘promising,’ yet only flickered for a time in Perth and Hobart, yet he was appointed the bowling coach. Fielding coach Luke Ronchi is highly regarded as a potential coach in the shorter formats of the game.

It is appalling that within the timeframe of these appointments, Steven Fleming, Daniel Vettori, Shane Bond and Brendon McCullum have all been lost to the national coaching roster. All performers, record-breakers, tried, tested and trusted. Add Mike Hesson to that list and New Zealand starts to look like, what it may very well be, very little fish in a big pond. It’s difficult then to see that having always been bold and innovative in the shorter formats of ODI and T20, that we should not be, now.

One solution would be to create a ‘White Ball Squad,’ similar to the ‘All Black Rugby Sevens’ where players are specifically targeted for their shorter game skills. In the same way that Karl Baker, Tim Mikkelson, Scott Curry and DJ Forbes have committed to 7’s, the Black Caps could pick a basic performance squad of current non-Test players that could be supplemented by a couple of ‘apprentices’ from the U-19 setup, and the ability to call on one or two current Test players to bolster their playing eleven, if needed. Ponder this as a contracted ‘White Ball Squad.’

Martin Guptill, Colin Munro, and Hamish Rutherford are the best top-order strikers in the country, supplemented by the hard hitting Tim Seifert, Glen Phillips, Tom Bruce and Mark Chapman to round out the batting group. I would look at Jimmy Neesham, Corey Anderson, Daryl Mitchell, and the uncapped Keiran Noema-Barnett as four big hitting all-rounders, with George Worker, Todd Astle, and a rejuvenated Ish Sodhi as the spinners, all three capable batsmen. Hamish Bennett, Tim Wheeler, Scott Kuggelijn, and Blair Tickner are definite pace options, while either Matt Henry or Tim Southee could offer experience, and what about Mitch McLenaghan?

That would give a squad of twenty, and with apprentices, twenty two. Give them to Ronchi, who has “been there and done it all,” let him bring in specialists, mentors and the like for short-term ‘fixes’, such as McCullum and Bond, and they may yet discover their zest and zing in twenty and fifty over cricket. And for goodness sake, tie Ross Taylor to a coaching career after he retires, and they might inspire generations to come. I’ve not mentioned Wellington’s Devon Conway, as it appears he will go straight into the Test squad upon becoming eligible.

The side benefit of this would be in not over-using the best-of-the-best, such as Latham, Boult, Williamson et al, and allow them to look after their bodies a wee bit better. But honestly, look at that twenty.... Most have played international, BB, CPL or IPL cricket, they all hit a big ball, and New Zealand crowds will turn out in droves to watch their battlers, that’s if anyone is left after the tripe that has been served up since Christmas!