Monday, 5 March 2007

Ben on...Scotty speaks

Scott Styris is writing a tour diary for the Black Caps website. It's pretty banal stuff. Which is a shame, because I've heard he's a bit of joker within the team – the Mark Richardson sprint race was apparently his idea. Still, it may get better as stuff starts to happen and it is great to have one of the team reporting from the tournament.

We haven't heard much from Scotty on the field since he got back into the team after his injuries, however. Just 70-odd runs and one wicket. No wonder he is talking about upping the intensity. If he can find some form though he'll be a key player. His record in the West Indies, based on one visit in 2002, is very impressive. He averages about 40 batting and 17.14 bowling (with a best of 6/25!), so it seems the conditions there do seem to suit him. His batting has always been erratic, so hopefully it'll come right after the warm up matches. However, his bowling has seriously fallen away in recent time, so any help he can get will be a real boon.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Could I be so bold as to call him a "poor mans Andrew Symonds"? Such a remark spurred Oram onto greater things, maybe it could do the same for Scotty. Ive heard a rumour that Jesse Ryder may be looking at doing a 'kevin petterson' and going offshore to England, living and gaining residency and eligibility. Can anyone confirm this? If so, its a real shame because i still think hes desperately unlucky not to be in the squad. I hope its just a rumour and nothing else because itd be a fairly pathetic and bratty way to end your hope for international callup.

Ben said...

Where did you hear that rumour Karel? To be honest, Ryder just never seems to appear in the news these days so I'm simply not aware of what he is doing.

Ben said...

I just checked the Black Caps site again and it seems Macca is also supplying a tour diary.

His starts off as mildly as Scotty's, with him explaining that he is on clean-up duty. However, there's some pretty nice writing in there. Here's Macca on his karaoke efforts (to Westlife):

"To be honest, it was a bit like a cricket innings. I had a rough start, my timing was all out, but I soldiered through then only to notice that a few patrons were starting to leave the bar and I wasn’t even half way through. Although down on confidence, I thought I came home strongly – to the applause of my teammates. However, I don’t think I will be back in the near future."

Anonymous said...

His diary is accompanied by stunning pictures like the one in this article....

http://www.stuff.co.nz/3981768a1823.html