Tuesday, 13 February 2007

World Cup squad announced

The New Zealand team for the World Cup has just been announced. The bolter in the side is Daryl Tuffey. Jonathan Millmow spent this morning dithering over whether selectors should go with Chris Martin or Andre Adams - it turns out that High Tower beat them both out. The rest of the 15 has no suprises in it:

Stephen Fleming (c)
Shane Bond
James Franklin
Peter Fulton
Mark Gillespie
Michael Mason
Brendon McCullum
Craig McMillan
Jacob Oram
Jeetan Patel
Scott Styris
Ross Taylor
Daryl Tuffey
Daniel Vettori
Lou Vincent

A note with the announcement said that Mason and Fulton won't be playing in the Chappell-Hadlee series. Both are developing players who have shown some talent, but became a little worringly one dimensional in Australia. I suspect they have been told to go back to the domestic game to experiment a little with their variations.

EDIT: Correction in the last sentence - originally I mistakenly put Gillespie's name where Mason's should have been.

1 comment:

Suhas said...

Have to say I'm a bit disappointed with the selection and the policy of dropping both Fulton and Mason (not Gillespie as has been mentioned in this post) for the three upcoming games. I haven't been following Daryl Tuffey's performances of late but I must question the wisdom of suddenly bringing him back into the side at the last minute..I can only hope he hits his straps quickly against the Aussies. The argument put forth was that his economy rate of late for Northern Districts has been good, but I always remember him being quite hittable at the domestic level. It seems to me that the selectors wanted experience, in which case I would have thought Chris Harris was the ideal candidate. His bowling is more suited to the caribbean, his batting would have been useful at worst and he would have improved the now shocking fielding standards. We now seem to have a glut of medium pacers to support Bond - Gillepsie, Mason, Oram, Franklin were already established choices, so I personally feel this was one selection too many. If the selectors really wanted a replacement for Kyle Mills, Chris Martin would have been a better bet for me than Tuffey but that's just my view. Hope Daryl proves me wrong!

The dropping of Fulton and Mason for the Australia series now is a bizarre decision as well. Fulton may have had a mixed CB series but his last innings against Aus was a neat half-century and he generally looked more accomplished than craig mcmillan at any rate. I don't see how a return to domestic cricket will benefit him more than one last bit of international exposure before the world cup. Michael Mason is again not a bowler I rate highly but he hasn't done much wrong in the only opportunities he's got. he deserved more than one game in the CB series and is unlucky to miss out. As of now the side is too crowded with seam bowlers i guess. Once again, Tuffey had better step up if he is to justify his position in the current pecking order.