Lees fancies Wgtn’s chances

Press, 6 December 1989, Page 41

Lees fancies Wgtn’s chances

PA Wellington Wellington, and not the detending champion, Auckland, will be the most consistent side in the Shell Trophy cricket competition this summer, according to the Otago coach selector, Warren Lees. The former test wicket-keeper who led Otago to the Shell Trophy and Cup double in 1987/88 believes organisation and preparation will make Wellington the most formidable side in the competition which begins on Friday. “They are the best organised side and always the hardest to play,” Lees said of the defending one-day Shell Cup champion team. “They are always very professional in approach and they always go about their business in a very workmanlike manner,” he said. Wellington, which will begin its campaign against Northern Districts at the Basin Reserve, also has the services of a former test player, John Morrison, as coach and manager. Auckland though, while not as consistent, will make a brilliant start to the season and that he predicts will be because it is richly laden with New Zealand test players. Auckland has seven players who took the field in last month’s one-off test with Australia. This season it has been bolstered with the New Zealand captain, John Wright, having moved from Canterbury. It has such depth that the absence of Phil Horne (badminton-Commonwealth Games), lan Fisher (to Central Districts) and Peter Neutze (to Northern Districts) is hardly expected to cause a ripple. Auckland’s depth stretches so far that it can keep the New Zealand youth team wicketkeeper, Adam Parore, in the clubhouse while

the test wicket-keeper, lan Smith, is on show. Lees does not expect too much from the other sides. Northern Districts, minus the gifted batting of Zimbabwe’s Graeme Hick, who will qualify to play for England in 1991 and the new test all-rounder Chris Cairns, who has moved to Christchurch, certainly will not be as strong. Northern Districts finished third behind Auckland and Wellington last summer, but without such key players Lees says the Chris Kuggeleijn-led team could struggle. A New Zealand one-day representative, Gary Robertson, will have to shoulder much of the bowling responsibilities and the wicket-keeper-batsman, Tony Blain, may be required to steel the middle order. Neighbouring Canterbury, which finished fifth last season, could be disappointing as well. “They always promise a lot and offer so little in the end which is quite disappointing,” Lees said. While injured Richard Hadlee will not be available, the presence of Cairns, who joins his former New Zealand youth team-mate and wicket-keeper, Lee Germon, could inspire the side. "He could take their game into a new dimension and inspire them,” Lees said of Cairns who made his test debut last month against Australia. As for Otago, he is hoping to have his charges finish in the "top two.” “We could have won it last year, if it hadn’t been for that disastrous second innings against Auckland in the final match. The Shell competition round on Friday has Auckland hosting Central Districts, Wellington at home to Northern Districts and Otago travelling to Lancaster Park to play Canter-