John Wright under no illusions

Press, 24 December 1986, Page 34

John Wright under no illusions

By

KEVIN HART,

of NZPA, in Wellington

Canterbury’s cricket captain, John Wright, is under no illusions about the task his side faces to retain its Shell Cup one-day title.

“Every side in the competition looks capable of beating anyone and we have to be the underdogs,” he said yesterday. The first round of the competition will be played on Saturday, and Canterbury faces Wellington at Timaru in what appears to be a key clash. With Wright providing a high degree of motivation in his first term of captaincy, Canterbury beat everyone except Wellington as it swept through to claim the cup last season. “Our first match could be the crucial one. Wellington is always well organised and well balanced,” Wright said. Wellington boasts probably the most parsimonious opening attack in the country in Ewen Chatfield and Paul Allott, with solid support from Steve Maguiness and Evan Gray. Its batting line-up, although less flamboyant than some, proved effective last season except in the loss to Otago when a lack of depth was exposed. • Wellington’s prospects have certainly been boosted by comfortable wins over both Auckland and Canterbury in warmup matches. Canterbury has largely retained its batting line-up of last season but a question mark hangs over the bowling where experience, most notably in the shape of David Stead, has been lost.

“We've ’got four youngsters, including David Hartshorn, who haven’t had much experience in one-day cricket,” Wright said. "But against that, we possess players such as

Rod Latham, Vaughan Brown, Paul McEwan and Richard Hadlee who can really get on with it.” Canterbury would seek to bat with more consistency this season and to further improve the field ing which was one of its main strengths last year, Wright added. Auckland is another cup front-runner, although its line-up may flourish more in the Shell Trophy competition. It starts its campaign with a home match against Otago. Auckland has a particular strength in the depth of its batting, especially since the experiments of opening with the likes of John Bracewell and Martin Snedden seem likely to be abandoned. There is a solid look to the top-order batting with Phil Horne, Richard Reid, Derek Scott, but Auckland has suffered a blow with the withdrawal of John Reid who fashioned a cup average of 104 last season and was an inevitable stabilising influence. The non-selection of the international mediumpacer, Willie Watson, could also backfire as he has produced many of his best performances at the one-day level. Despite Watson’s recent return to form and a more aggressive approach fostered by Dennis Lillee, the trio of Stu Gillespie, Danny Morrison and Gary Troup have all been preferred to him.

Otago, the holder of the Shell Trophy, has a solid look but, with the notable exception of Ken Rutherford, a lack of individual spark. That suggests it is again better equipped for the three-day arena.

The other opening match pits Central Districts against Northern Districts at Napier. Central, the cup winner in 1984-85, failed to win a match last season, while providing Northern with its sole scalp. That performance seems unlikely to be repeated given the individual talent within the Central line-up, although its new captain, Martin Crowe, discovered at the week-end that the side’s early season lethargy will again be hard to shake. In a two-day warm-up match against Northern at Hamilton, Central could manage only 203 in response to Northern’s 413 for nine declared in excellent batting conditions. That was not an impressive debut for Central’s policy of attacking batsmen, through the fielding of two spinners in Stuart Duff and Pieter Verhoek. The wayward bowling, of Derek Stirling was an immediate cause for concern and much will depend on him and the steadier Gary Robertson, especially given the nonavailability of Peter Visser. Central only twice managed to score over 200 last season, but a largely similar line-up has the ability to fire impressively. The likes of Roberston, Duff and Stirling provide punishing batting in depth. Northern at the weekend appeared little perturbed by the loss of the former internationals, Geoff Howarth, Lance Cairns and Bruce Blair.