Dylan Cleaver questions the composition of New Zealand's ODI squad for Australia, with the inclusion of Brendon Diamanti and Trent Boult over more experienced players. The selectors may have got it right this season with Martin Guptill and Tim McIntosh but can they hope that any name they draw out of the hat now will make them look like geniuses? Read on in the Herald on Sunday.
If only that were the most startling selection in this squad of 14 picked to wrest the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy off an Australian side that can no longer claim greatness. Diamanti, you could argue, is a straight swap for Jacob Oram, though if it were a debating society you'd be praying to land on the negative side of that proposal.
In the same paper, Mark Richardson feels Diamanti's selection was logical given his ability to bowl yorkers at the death overs and contain the scoring in the Powerplay overs.
While the fluid and unpredictable nature of cricket requires players to be relatively flexible in approach, the time is soon coming when the weighting on traditional play versus specialised play will reverse - seeing skills tailored to specific areas of the 50-over game. Players will spend far more time and even spend their total practice time working on things like yorkers, slower balls, hitting yorkers and slower balls, ramping bouncers, various sweeps and the like.
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