Yeah, a number of obvious problems with the New Zealand cricket team at the moment. First up is how we've practically lost an entire team, the team that achieved our #3 ODI ranking. Fleming, Astle, McMillan, Carins, Harris, Bond, Vettori (injury), Oram (injury). It hit NZ hard when most of the players left at around the same time. If you want to bring new blood into the squad, you want to bring in just a couple of players to learn off the experienced players. But there's the key problem, we don't have enough anymore.
I also think we need to clear out the coaching staff. Get Martin Crowe in there. I'd miss him as a decent commentator but that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make. For any other cricket team, or any other sports team, Bracewell would've been given the boot a long time ago. But NZ Cricket? No no, we'll give him time. There are so many coaches in NZ (former greats) who would well & truely be up for the job. Someone like Crowe or Wright or Rixon would do the trick.
And the players out of position annoyed me. They see someone do really well in the domestic scene, so they put them elsewhere in the international scene & wonder why they aren't doing well. This game isn't for Peter Fulton. He's a strokemaker, not a slogger. He'd much rather push through a nicely timed cover drive than blast a shot down the ground. I would've had Vincent instead of him for this version of the game. Now, instead of that, Fulton's moral & confidence will have taken a dive ahead of the ODI series, a series where he has the potential to shine. And Hitchcock? Batting at nine??? What's going on? He opens for Auckland!
To be honest, I don't care if we get thrashed in this tour. Just as long as I can see some kind of sign that NZ cricket is moving forward. Like I said, get Bracewell out of there, throw in someone who can define the word logic, & start playing players where they play best.
This has been another rant from Jos? Pedro. Expect many more throughout England's tour of New Zealand
