Brown satisfied with tour

Press, 2 November 1984, Page 44

Brown satisfied with tour

By

JOHN COFFEY

Although troubled by a minor back injury, Vaughan Brown returned to Christchurch yesterday more than satisfied with his form during the Young New Zealand cricket team’s tour to Zimbabwe. Brown intends to rest this week-end to avoid aggravating the back muscles torn in the last tour match at Harare, before resuming club cricket with Old Collegians as a prelude to the start of the Shell Series next month. In the four first-class fixtures in Zimbabwe Brown

had innings of 1, 69 not out, 85 not out and . 17, giving him an imposing average of 86, and he took eight wickets with his off-spinners at a cost of about 30 runs each. “I guess I can't have done by reputation any harm,” said Brown, “I probably performed much better than I expected. “My attitude to batting improved on tour. It hardened up a bit,” he said. Brown did not feel that he was in direct rivalry with his team-mate, John Bracewell, for a place in the full New Zealand side to tour Pakistan. “John is an excellent

bowler — as far as I am concerned he is the number one in the country anyway, and it was surprising he was not initially in the team for Pakistan. “We encouraged each other, swapped ideas, and, although both of us are offspinners, we are different types of bowlers. I rely on flight, and he relies on spin,” said Brown. He was in agreement with comments made by the Young New Zealand manager, Ken Deas, of Auckland, that the venture had been very worth while for both countries. New Zealand shares the problem of most

established cricketing nations in seeking suitable opposition for its second side. “Zimbabwe has a better one-day than three-day side. Many of their players had experience in English league cricket and they could really perform at times. But there was a lack of consistency,” said Brown. Young New Zealand and Zimbabwe had two victories each in the limited-overs matches. Young New Zealand won the second of the four three-day games by eight wickets, the others being drawn.