N.Z. treats match as test preparation

Press, 15 October 1976, Page 24

N.Z. treats match as test preparation

By

ALAN GRAHAM,

NZPA staff correspondent

Lahore

All four New Zealand cricketers who missed the first test have been named in the tourists’ side to play Pakistan in a one-day international at Sialkot tomorrow, a clear indication that New Zealand is treating the game primarily as preparation for the second test.

Mark Burgess, Richard Hadlee and Warren Lees, respectively named batsman, bowler, and fieldsman of the match among the Kiwis in the first test, have all been rested along with Peter Petherick, who took a hattrick.

Andy Roberts and Murray Parker, both batsmen, and the seam bowlers, Gary Troup and Lance Cairns, come into the side with a chance to force their way into the test team. The eleven for the one day match is Glenn Turner, John Morrison, Geoffrey Howarth, Murray Parker, John Parker, Roberts, Robert Anderson, Cairns, Richard Collinge, David O’Sullivan, and Troup. The wicket-keeper will be John Parker. Pakistan has named thirteen for the match adding the seam bowlers, Asif Masood and Sikander Bakht, to the eleven who won the first test by six wickets.

The home team is Mushtaq Mohammad, Sadiq Mohammad, Majid Khan, Zaheer Abbas, Asif Iqbal, Javed Miandad, Imran Khan, Wasim Bari, Sikander Bakht, Wasim Raja, Intikhab Alom, Sardraz Nawas, and Asif Masood.

The match will be played in a festival setting at Sialkot, a town 80 miles north of Lahore which rarely sees

international cricket. With only four non-tests on the entire tour the New Zealanders have been given little option but to give some of their reserve players a game and to give them some chance to displace the current test players. The batting form of Howarth, Morrison, and John Parker has not been outstanding on tour, though each has played two reasonable innings. Either Roberts or Murray Parker could replace one of them. Turner has not been in form either, taking just 21 runs all told from three innings, but replacing him would be inconceivable.

Cairns could easily come into the side for one of the spinners, and either Cairns or Troup could be considered to replace Collinge who tried very hard in the test but got nothing out of the pitch. Discussing the first test Turner said yesterday that it was clear that just two matches plus four days of practice had left the tourists neither prepared nor ready for the test, and this was something that would have to be carefully studied when teams were coming straight out of winter. All 11 Pakistani players had come from county or league cricket in England whereas New Zealand had only three players who came from England.

Turner said New Zealand had come out of the test witt more respect than seemed likely in the early stages and he expected the two remain ing tests at Hyderabad and Karachi to be more closely fought. He had no complaints about the umpires but was disappointed with the pitch even though it lasted the foul days. "It was strange to play on one that had been used before,” he said. "The bounca was a little uneven and there was some spin from the start. All sorts of thing! could have happened on the last day if we had got that far.”

Turner said he wu not blaming the pitch for New Zealand’s loss. The tourists practised solidly yesterday morning in a bid to find better batting form and they will drive the 80 miles to Sialkot today. A small tourist mini-bus was provided for the journey but it has been totally rejected by the team who have demanded a reasonable-sized vehicle for 18 people plus their baggage. Pakistan has named a squad of 18 for the second test at Hyderabad on Saturday week. It consists of the 13 named for Sialkot plus the batsmen, Haroon Rashid and Moshin Khan, the wicketkeeper Shadhid Israr, and the left-arm spinners, Iqbal Qasim and Farrukh Zaman.