Selectors drop six cricket players in naming N.Z. team for Australian tour

Press, 12 August 1985, Page 25

Selectors drop six cricket players in naming N.Z. team for Australian tour

By

JOHN COFFEY

The tribulations of a sizeable number of the New Zealand cricketers who scored the West Indies earlier this year were revived on Saturday with the announcement of the team which will travel to Australia in October.

Geoff Howarth, whose proud captaincy record was tarnished when New Zealand was well beaten in the last two West Indian tests, is one of six players whose services have not been retained. The two new internationals on the West Indian excursion, Ken Rutherford and Ronnie Hart, have been given time for their wounds to heal after a batting “blooding” that resembled a scene from a slaughterhouse. Also discarded were the medium-fast bowlers, Gary Troup and Derek Stirling, and the off-spinner, John Bracewell. John Reid and Bruce Edgar, who were not available for the West Indies, have returned to bolster the batting potential. Trevor Franklin has been recalled to understudy the seasoned opening pair, John Wright and Edgar, and Martin Snedden has been brought back to complete a very familiar seam bowling combination.

The only newcomer to international cricket is the Canterbury all-rounder, Vaughan Brown, who has been on the verge of promotion for some years and last spring was a member of the Emerging Players

squad which played in Zimbabwe.

A century, five other scores over 50, and consistent bowling returns enabled Brown to lead the Canterbury Shell Trophy aggregates with 538 runs and 28 wickets last season. Brown, a left-hand batsman and right-arm off-spinner, has deservedly earned a ranking above the more established Bracewell.

The captaincy change, with Howarth’s responsibilities being passed on to Jeremy Coney, emphasises the wholesale changes which might be the product of the selection convener, Frank Cameron, having accompanied the squad to the West Indies.

The team to begin its Australian itinerary against North Queensland at Townsville on October 18 and which will have tests at Brisbane, Sydney and Perth in November is.—

Jeremy Coney (Wellington, captain), Steve Boock (Otago), Vaughan Brown (Canterbury), Lance Cairns (Northern Districts), Ewen Chatfield (Wellington), Jeff Crowe (Auckland), Martin Crowe (Central Districts), Bruce Edgar (Wellington), Trevor Franklin (Auckland), Richard Hadlee (Canterbury), John Reid (Auckland),

lan Smith (Central Districts), Martin Snedden (Auckland), John Wright (Canterbury). Although understandable, the omission of Stirling is the most disappointing feature of the team announcement. After a most promising debut in Pakistan last summer, Stirling’s standards fell away alarmingly in the domestic season.

There was renewed hope when the selectors persevered with Stirling, and when he reaped creditable figures from the West

Indian warm-up fixtures. But Stirling failed at test level under the steely gaze of Mr Cameron, and he will have to look to the Shell Series to regain his rhythm. Hadlee will yet again be looked upon to make the initial inroads into the Australian batting, with Chatfield, Cairns and Snedden having to call upon experience rather than explosiveness in their supporting roles.

New Zealand’s ability to accumulate runs causes less concern. Edgar has prospered at the expense of the Australians in the past, and Reid was outstanding against Pakistan in the 1984-85 home-and-away series.

Wright has a last-start century against Australia, at Lancaster Park in 1982, and a most profitable present term with Derbyshire to carry with him into the tests. Jeff Crowe, of course, is very familiar with Australian conditions and, with Martin Crowe and Coney, is part of a very solid centre in the line-up. It was logical that Smith would be the sold wicketkeeper, with Reid and possibly Edgar giving him a rest in one or two of the lesser games.