Selectors, cricketers to talk

Press, 30 March 1989, Page 18

Selectors, cricketers to talk

PA Wellington New Zealand’s top cricketers will get the chance to have a frank discussion on their future with the national selectors over the winter. The national selectors, Don Neely, and Bob Cunis, and the New Zealand Cricket Council chief executive, Graham Dowling, will tour the country in the next three months meeting the encumbent test players and those on the fringe of national selection individually for what the council terms a “debriefing exercise.”

Mr Neely said the idea was a foliow-up to similar sessions last year, which he felt were beneficial to the players in giving them the chance to get any gripes off their chest in private and clarify where they stood in the selectors’ eyes.

"The general feedback was excellent. We decided to allow an hour for each player but we found we had to stop them,” Mr Neely said. He said that players were able to discuss their performances of the previous season and get an indication of what the selectors expected from them in the following summer.

A senior New Zealand player, Martin Snedden, praised the concept and felt it would have positive spin-off effects.

Those approached for a talk are sure to include players in the Young New Zealand side which toured Zimbabwe early last season.