Scott Angry

Scott Styris has sought clarification from the New Zealand selectors over the reason he was dropped from the second charity one-dayer. Scott didn't believe Stephen Fleming when he said Styris was dropped because he is "short of runs". After all, this claim is clearly rubbish because "I was man of the series three games ago in Bangladesh, so I'm not going that bad." And if you use the performance against a sub-par Bangladesh as your form guide and ignore the matches against Australia and Sri Lanka that followed and a horrendous domestic season then he might just be right. In justifying why the Bangladesh series is the only reliable indicator of his form Styris claimed that his poor one-day form for Northern (scores of 0,6 and 0) was the result of "three crap wickets". Having handily ignored the games against Australia and Sri Lanka (batting average 7) he then claimed that he has been doing well in the first-class game. These matches have been played on "very good" pitches and his scores in the "30s and 40s" show that he is in good form. While only quibbling slightly with his mathematics skills, I do have to admit that returns of 22, 36, 31 and 15 are actually pretty good given his meagre talents.

Having dismissed form as a reason for being dropped, Styris has hunted around for the real reason - and he thinks he has found it. It seems the selectors are trying to play mind games with him. They dropped him to boost his enthusiasm for the game. But clever Scott has seen through that, "I've played a few games now, so I don't think I need a wake-up call," he claims.

A banner at the stadium told us "Scott Styris: don't hate him because he's beautiful." And why would you when he gives us so many other good reasons.