West Island Cleared by Customs and ready to Play

Unlike PNG, it's near neighbour did manage to get their Visas in order.  This is good and bad, dependent on how you see it.  Being here means they have to play cricket against us.  Being here also means some 9 months later an errant night of drowning their sorrows will see another solo kiwi mother off to be Australia-ised.

But that's by the by.  It's about a month of cricket with 2nd ranked test nation up against 6th placed us. And the Chappell/Hadlee sees 1st placed Aussie up against rapidly rising 3rd place us.  Mouth watering indeed.  3 ODI's and 2 tests (yes I rue not having a third one) seems short, but with a compressed ODI/Test series leading into this series and then WT20C teams off to India on the back of this one, something had to give.

So what of this pesky little Aussie tour? Intriguing and probably a good gauge how both teams go with forced changes (NZ some batting changes, Aussie a weakened bowling attack.).  The ODI's will be fun if for the fact it is the first time in ages (It Seems) we have played it here.  Trainspotters will clarify that.  My blog though isn't about test cricket and ODI in particular.  Well it is actually but with a twist.  I have trawled CricInfo for the highest Test Batting score for both teams in both forms on NZ soil. I have also delved and found the best bowling figures for each country in tests and ODI in NZ.

Tests

Australia

Batting HS  KD Walters 250                      

Bowling  BBI  D Lillee 6-72

ODI

Australia

Batting HS  M Hayden 182

Bowling BBI  M Starc 6/28

New Zealand

Tests

Batting HS Bruce Edgar 161

Bowling BBI  Daniel Vettori 7/87

New Zealand ODI

Batting HS Craig McMillan and Ross Taylor share 117.

 









Bowling BBI Shane Bond 5/25

So there you go.  Mouth watering look at a series.

Famous for Tea and Cricket - The state of Sri Lankan Cricket

They appeared on the competitive cricket radar in the 1980's and soon built themselves a reputation, climbing up the ODI initially and as their player base improved, then up the test rankings too.  Many players became household names and helped give credibility to their status on those rankings.

From the comical to the very good, players came and stayed but most of all, they performed and teams they played respected their position.  In those first 30 odd years players have come and gone, but generally they have had a steady player roster.  And heroes were born. Ranatunga, Jayasuriya, Muralithiran, Vaas and Malinga to name a few.  However they have struggled since Murali retired, only being held together by Jayawardene and Sangakkara.

But this year saw the double retirement of both those last two, and sadly they leave Sri Lanka Cricket in a dire state.  Sure losing your first choice wicketkeeper doesn't help win test matches, but a depleted batting line up and a bowling unit that exists purely on spin will not, for the foreseeable future, be the way to keep a winning percentage.  But also take on-board the fact that SL aren't always on the wrong end of results.  They did well at home and had that huge series win in England last year.

The reason for this blog is to highlight a problem in world cricket, exacerbated by the likes of the issues with West Indies, Zimbabwe and I am foreseeing Sri Lanka will also fall before they get some talent in that side.  But apart from Zimbabwe, the West Indies players are suckered by T20 and Sri Lanka ODI's (Malinga e.g.).  Test cricket stocks in all these countries is in such a state that something needs to be done to rekindle the fire.  Perhaps the ICC pumps funding into player contracts in a Test World Cup every 5 years with all countries contracted and signed in please to play the iconic brand.  T20 is undoing cricket, real cricket, so we lock that as hit and giggle bums on seats and TV, and have contracted 5 day, 3 test series.  ODI's are gone.

Ok that's my bit for today.  Below are the matches Sri Lanka and New Zealand (Home/Away) have played in last 20 years up to this first test.

NZ Home matches 11, Away matches 9.  Tests won by NZ - 9, Drawn 4 and Lost 7.

1995  H  Lost  241 runs
          H  Draw
1997  H  Won  Innings and 36runs
          H  Won  120 runs
1998  A  Won  167 runs
          A  Lost   Innings and 16 runs
          A  Lost  164 runs
2003  A  Draw
          A  Draw
2005  H  Draw
          H  Won  Innings and 38 Runs
2006  H  Won  5 Wickets
          H  Lost  217 Runs
2009  A  Lost  202 Runs
          A  Lost  96 runs
2012  A  Lost  10 Wickets
          A  Won  167 Runs
2014  H  Won 8 Wickets
2015  H  Won  193 runs
          H  Won 122 Runs

Tale of the Tape - Who is our best batsman in the past 12 months?

Brendon??

Or

Kane??

Brendon has scored heavily in three test innings but is this enough to topple young Kane off the averages and runs scored in a calendar year perch?

In the spreadsheet below I have tallied all test innings, all ODI innings and all T20 innings seperately to give a synopsis of how they went in all three forms.  You'd think no surprises right?  And to get a balance of how well both batsmen have progressed through the year, a match up at the end of their combined runs from all three forms and a combined average.

Intrigued to see how they fared and who is best?

The stats.

Williamson		B McCullum
Tests	NO	Tests	NO
45		37
58		12
56		224
113		1
3		8
47		302
7		7
113		17
2		4
42	1	3
161		31
3		25
23		18
32		39
11		43
192		45
		202
908		1018		Runs scored
60.53		63.63		Average
ODI's	NO	ODI's	NO
8		51
47		33
16		14
71		6
77		30
65		0
60		0
88		49	1
10		23
70	1	16
		12
512		234		Runs scored
56.89		21.27		Average
T20's	NO	T20's		NO
24	1	60		1
51		17
29		16		1
42		4
19		65
37		0
0		40
32		21
234		223		Runs scored
29.25		37.17		Average
Kane		Bmac
1654		1475		Total from 11 December 2013 to 13 December 2014
51.69		44.70		Average across all forms.

Closing The Revolving Door, NZ Cricket grows up

It's fair to say that since the heady days of successful NZ cricket between mid 1970's to early 2000's there has been a rolling door policy with players coming and going and some coming back and going again and very little steadiness to the team.  Be it the fault of the coaches, many selectors or the players themselves, it doesn't matter now.  The New Dawn is upon the Blackcaps and they are doing it very nicely.

Since the advent of Mike Hesson and David White, and more latterly Bruce Edgar, there seems to be a sense of purpose going forward, and part of that purpose is rewarding talent, sticking with experience, and by and large not spitting out new players straight away if performances slacken.  As the Warriors loudly triumph in song "Loyal" and "Keeping the Faith".

So what of that experience in the teams (test and ODI)  The test teams for West Indies and India at home have largely been loyalty in selections.  The only change was Redmond in for Williamson in tests, Neesham in for Sodhi using a total of 13 players for 5 tests, unheard of for so long.  The ODI's are slightly different, injuries to bowlers changing the dynamic and the Horses For Courses selections too.  All in all 15 players were used, mostly the bowlers were the changes/extras.

Anyway, this list shows test and odi teams that played over 2013/14 with the years they debuted for the Blackcaps.  It shows a breadth of experience, and newish selections, which bodes well for the future.

Tests				ODI's
Name		Debut		Name		Debut
Fulton		2006		Guptill		2009
Rutherford		2013		Ryder		2008
Williamson		2010		Williamson		2010
Taylor		2007		Taylor		2006
B McCullum		2004		B McCullum		2002
Anderson		2013		Anderson		2013
Watling		2009		Ronchi		2013
Southee		2008		Southee		2008
Sodhi		2013		N McCullum		2009
Wagner		2012		Milne		2012
Boult		2011		McLenaghan		2013
Neesham		2013		Neesham		2013
Redmond		2008		Bennett		2013
				Mills		2001
				Henry		2013

Editted to add Latham (2014)