September 10, 2009
Butler did it, despite the odds
Posted on 09/10/2009 in New Zealand in Sri Lanka 2009
Shane Bond, Ian Butler and Daryl Tuffey last hunted as a pack together in Barbados in 2002. Nine years later they are back together as a fast-bowling unit, representing their country in Sri Lanka. NZPA's Chris Barclay looks at where Butler has been in the meantime.
Injuries then became a byword of their respective careers, particularly for Bond and Butler. While Bond's list of ailments resemble a medical almanac, Butler's inoperable back problems were the root cause of his frustrations. New Zealand had just beaten Australia in the inaugural Chappell-Hadlee Trophy match at Melbourne's Docklands Stadium in December 2004 when Butler realised his pain was more than irritating.
He gritted through a couple of domestic games for Northern Districts while 'drugged up' before scans revealed a disc compression or in Butler's words: "Everything that could have gone with my back did go wrong." Butler was warned his cricketing career was over, he disagreed and spent a couple of years trying to specialise as a batsman but his cricketing preference kept gnawing away.
In the Hindustan Times, Anand Vasu explains why New Zealand have benefitted the most from BCCI's amnesty offer to ICL players.
August 21, 2009
Now there's a message
Posted on 08/21/2009 in New Zealand in Sri Lanka 2009
Paul Holden in his blog Sideline Slogger talks about the banner competition in Sri Lanka, explaining the variously good, bad, ugly and downright odd.
Each cricketing nation displays idiosyncratic conventions in terms of its crowd banners: the Poms focus on Union Jacks with obscure hamlets and football clubs emblazoned across them, the Australians are massive on the spray paint vs sheet combination, and in India there is artistic flair for the vivid marker on to A3 paper approach.
August 16, 2009
At your service
Posted on 08/16/2009 in New Zealand in Sri Lanka 2009
Perhaps right now the New Zealand players cannot expect to be the best in the world but there is no reason they can't lead the world in the way they prepare. The evidence suggests they are aiming to do just so. Funds are being utilised to tap into the knowledge of past performers and that is not just in the usual form of previous New Zealand players. Mark Richardson in the Herald on Sunday gives the thumbs-up to the step forward.
I was honoured to be asked to help with formulating game plans to combat the Sri Lankan threat and spent a good chunk of time with the team's video analyst. I've basically told them to "block the proverbial out of it".
In the same paper, Peter Walsh finds it weird that Maurice Holmes, a 19-year-old from the Kent 2nd XI has been flown by the New Zealand team halfway round the world to be a net bowler. Given the fact that Holmes hasn't even played first class cricket, and that New Zealand already have the services of Saqlain Mushtaq available, Walsh feels the infusion of money into the game nowadays has meant a burgeoning industry in support staff.
August 14, 2009
Why NZ should be wary of SL
Posted on 08/14/2009 in New Zealand in Sri Lanka 2009
New Zealand begin their three-Test series in Sri Lanka next week and the Sideline Slogger has listed out 10 reasons why the visitors must be be wary of Sri Lanka.
Captain Kumar Sangakkara is one of the best batsmen going around on the world scene at the moment, and Craig McMillan picked him as the bloke he would have out there on the day to bat for his life. (It was Chanderpaul for me.) Having plundered 570 runs in his last five Tests (all against Pakistan), the lippy left-handed Lankan is not going to see too much to scare him in the New Zealand bowling attack sans Shane Bond. Plus he has scored unbeaten centuries against the Kiwis in his last two Test match outings..
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