Playing catch-up: Raro, Redmond & Braces
Thirteen things you need to know if you also took a week off cricket after the hiding from Australia in the ICC Champion's Trophy Final:
Braces has got everything under control in Gloucestershire: "We have a three-phase programme put in place for the winter. In the first phase we shall be examining the changes our batsmen need to make, the second will involve practising those changes and the third will be testing them out. There is lots of work to be done."
The Son of Rodney, Aaron Redmond, is the new Renaissance man of New Zealand cricket. How happy will he be that he gets to sit with the rest of the team on the flight over to Abu Dhabi, rather than flying in when one of the top-order batsmen breaks down? And is this pic of him one of the weirdest he has on file?
Younis Khan's name can be spelt Younus Khan sometimes - and he probably won't be dropping any goober catches against us in the United Arab Emirates in November as he has been benched as captain and his selection for the series is "up in the air".
The NZ squad with Scott Styris in it is stronger than the NZ squad without the man called Miley.
Richard Kahui, Isaac Boss, Pero Cameron, Adrian Cashmore, Quade Cooper, Blanket Man, Walter Little, Keven Mealamu, Brian Tamaki all have something in common with our newest international cricketer, Bradley-John Watling: Tokoroa's finest.
Brendon Diamanti must have RSI from Raro-stirring in Africa.
The dates of the NZ v Pakistan Sand Series are as follows: ODIs in Abu Dhabi on November 3, 6 and 9. Then we head down the Maqta Bridge to Sheikh Zayed road for a brace of Twenty20s on November 12 and 13. For the record, that road has 25-plus petrol stations on it, and the occasional ute carrying an even-toed ungulate.
Jacob Oram's words will be said by plenty more cricketers over the next few years, especially those in second-tier cricketing nations such as Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and the West Indies: "For the sake of longevity I have had to make a decision that will decrease my workload...NZ play a lot more limited-overs cricket than Tests, and there's also the opportunity to continue playing in world events such as the World Cup, World T20 and Champions Trophy, as well as the IPL."
Oram was also a bloody good Test cricketer, although it seems to have become fashionable to bag him for being "soft" and "heartless" - it is unfair. Fragile, yes. Fundamentally weak, no way. He only played 33 Tests out of NZ's 54 Tests since his debut in December 2002 but when he was on the field his record stacks up: more runs than Jeff Crowe and Scott Styris; a better batting average than Geoff Howarth, Bryan Young, JR Reid, Scott Styris, and Chris Cairns; more Test tons than Mark Richardson; more wickets than Martin Snedden and Bob Cunis; and a better bowling average than Dayle Hadlee and Danny Morrison.
It is impossible to tell who is cooler out of Usain Bolt and Chris Gayle. Read the Jamaica Gleaner and BBC reports, watch the YouTube video and cast your vote. Magnificent grassroots cross-pollination of cricket, calypso, coolness and the world's fastest man. One comment online read: "Bolt is de next great west indian cricketer!!! Stop wid dis athletics experiment!!"
Australia are significantly better than NZ at outdoor cricket - and also indoor cricket. The Australian men's team has won every World Cup since 1995. Cricket Australia has also merged with the indoor game - a logical, commonsense move surely.
Phil Tufnell is still alive dancing for charity in the UK, following in the footsteps of dashing Mark Ramprakash. If there were to be NZ cricketers on Dancing with the Stars, the boys at the BYC podcast reckon the three most likely would be Dion Nash, Simon Doull and Adam Parore. Chris Cairns was also mentioned in dispatches, as was Mark Richardson.
This club cricket challenge on steroids, the Champions League, is an absolute slogfest and Ross Taylor is never going to be able to wean himself off that across-the-line shot he loves so much. An incredible 74 million Indian eyeballs (based on two per person watching) have been glued to the tournament. Not many are missing Otago, it has to be said.
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Oooh, you're inviting some spleen venting with your praise of Oram. Of course the fact that your paragraph is 85% fact and only 15% subjectivisms is irrelevant.
I never knew Tokoroa had so much going for it!
Good to see you back Holden, but c'mon, nobody here takes a week off cricket, surely. Thought I may as well get a comment in before this inevitably becomes an "Eddy the Eagle lays into Big Jake" thread...
Agree that SoR is almost unrecognisable in that photo.
Awesome picture of Redmond! Interesting to see on cricinfo Vettori is keen of moving McCullum down the order for ODI's once Ryder is back so it becomes a shoot-out for the vacant spot between Redmond and Watling.
I thought that pic was of Hopkins initially..... Fridge - I can't get cricinfo at work, when did that story come out? McCullum may not be best pleased with that... Needed to be done though
I know that Hopkins and Redmond are hardly household faces but that's clearly Hopkins. Sort it out Herald.
Here's hoping Taylor can continue some of this form against Pakistan:
Dave,
Oct 18th
Here's the first paragraph: New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori has said Brendon McCullum will continue as an opener for the ODI series against Pakistan because Jesse Ryder's absence due to injury meant the opening line-up was already a little shaky. However Vettori said he was keen to push McCullum down the order in future in order to exploit the batting Powerplay.
Economist: Are you considering setting up an Economist branch in the forestry town? Ba-doom-chish.
Ben A: No, true. I would sit down to write something then by the time I'd read all the comments it was time to go to bed.
Well Ben A, when Holden/Deaker puts he had more wickets than Snedden one has to ask how serious the article is. I mean give me a break - Snedden? They still talk about Snedden regularly across the world... And then then puts we wasn't soft, I have never heard more public outcry on any NZ player than this blouse. You only have to read the comments on another article in Stuff recently to find that out. There are more than enough who share my opinion on the radio and at the pub. He is weak, just look at all the times he pulled out of matches with minor sprains. He bowled medium pace and yet he had constant problems? Curtly Ambrose, Allan Donald, Richard Hadlee, Bob Willis, Joel Garner, Glen McGrath (all tall thin bolwers with long careers who bolwed with pace) never pulled out of matches at the rate of knots this guy did. He also missed games for NZ last last season, but funnily enough played 11 out of the 12 IPL matches around the same time. Now fancy that...
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Schoolboy error - should know by now that making predictions about Pakistani cricket is always fraught with risk: Younis reinstated http://www.cricinfo.com/pakistan/content/current/story/430354.html