Editorial: Selectors catch on to Ingram's ability

OPINION: The New Zealand cricket selectors have finally realised what followers of the sport in Taranaki have known for summers – Peter Ingram is good enough to play for his country.

The Francis Douglas Memorial College physical education teacher has scratched on the Black Caps' door for a while, but New Zealand A honours was the tastiest morsel lobbed his way until yesterday. Naturally enough, he was overwhelmed when told of his inclusion in the Twenty20 and one day squads for matches against Bangladesh next month. If he performs in those, test match selection would surely beckon.

While many a fine tune is played on an old fiddle, as they say, it is puzzling to know why it has taken so long for the 31-year-old to be allowed the chance to take the ultimate step. He reinvented himself as a batsman about three years ago and went from a cautious strokemaker to an attacking opening batsman. Numbered among a host of impressive efforts for Central Districts were two double centuries, one last summer and the second just before Christmas.

Yet, regardless of how much noise he was making with his bat, the softly spoken Ingram seemed destined to be another so close, yet so far, victim of the New Zealand sporting scene.

While the knocking machine claimed he was too limited in his style to ever play international cricket, Ingram kept chipping away to such an extent in all three forms of the game, the selectors could not ignore him any longer.

The knockers will be at their I-told-you-so best if Ingram doesn't post at least one high total against Bangladesh, which is a minnow in international cricket.

No one knows that more than Ingram and you can bet your bails he will grit his teeth and make sure his stay in the Black Caps is not a brief one.

At the other end of the sporting spectrum, Taranaki golfing professional Grant Moorhead was gnashing his teeth in despair.

Being the best performed Kiwi in the NZ PGA championship at Clearwater wasn't good enough to get him a start in the NZ Open which starts on Thursday. He finished a shot behind the Australian winner and two clear of the next best New Zealander, but there was no provision for that to give him entry in to the Open.

Instead, he was forced back to the tee for the fifth day in a row to play a qualifying round in Christchurch yesterday and missed out, despite shooting a sub-par round.

It must have been gut-wrenching for him but Moorhead, like Ingram, is of resolute character and will be back plying his trade at the next opportunity.

- © Fairfax NZ News