Cricket: CD Stags striking magical chord of experience

William Young (left), Ross Taylor, Seth Rance, Dane Cleaver, Jesse Ryder and George Worker offer a snapshot of what will make the CD Stags tick in the white-ball campaign. Photo/John Velvin

Experience is a hard task master because he makes you sit tests first and then proceeds to lecture you along the way — just ask the Central Districts Stags.

As a lion's share of Stags earned the rites of passage from boys to men they quickly came to the stark realisation that experience isn't a pool they are going to create and collect in a reservoir but a ritual they had to inevitably undergo.

For CD captain William Young and his young men, every good judgement they made invariably emerged from a rash of bad ones.

It is, after all, a patient and laborious but rewarding exercise in building on mistakes, albeit not too many over and over again in the same vein.

For every time the Stags heard the death rattle, grassed a ball, bowled a wide, feathered one to the slips or made the wrong call running between the wickets, they didn't drop their shoulders. They agonised momentarily then smartly moved on because they knew that with experience comes the promise of other chances to redeem themselves.

Malan believes CD are going into round one of the Ford Trophy one-day domestic competition from tomorrow with a nice balance on the platform of experience — something that was obvious in five rounds of the four-day Plunket Shield campaign where they sit undefeated, only three points behind leaders Wellington Firebirds who they beat last weekend.

"It's an exciting time to switch over to the white-ball format and get off the way we want to play then start putting some structure around it," he says as they host the Auckland Aces at Pukekura Park, New Plymouth, tomorrow.

Three rounds later the Burger King Super Smash T20 will begin from Sunday next week.

For that reason there seldom are few surprises in CD's squad although Ben Smith returns as opening batsman after breaking a finger in the opening first-class game and Doug Bracewell moves out of the backbenchers' role to shuffle up to No 6.

"There's a shortage of quality allrounders in this country and Dougie's shown he is a proper first-class bowler and he's batted up the order for us in four-day cricket this [season] so we're trying to keep giving him batting exposure to put up the numbers to nail down a spot for the BCs [Black Caps]."

Ross Taylor and George Worker, in the Black Caps squad for the two test series against the touring West Indies, are part of the package in the white-ball campaign.

Strike bowler Adam Milne, allrounder Ryan McCone and new-ball merchant Seth Rance are unavailable due to injury.

It pleases Malan that different players helped mould the character and template of the unit in the shield rounds, which has added value to the previous two seasons.

He gives a thumbs up to the format of red-ball cricket as book ends with one-day and T20 the fillings in the sandwich this summer.

Ryder, who is opening batting with Smith, is managing a knee niggle he picked up at the Indoor Cricket World Cup but Malan says he's fitness isn't an issue and he also will bowl.

"Hopefully if he plays consistently he'll get to go up for higher honours," he says of Ryder who was 11 runs shy of four consecutive centuries in the shield format.

Allrounder Joshua Clarkson, of Nelson, is the X-factor for a bloke who should really be playing white-ball cricket for the Black Caps had it not been for his untimely injury breaks.

He is coming in at No 7 but, although he bowls, Malan sees him purely as a batsman in the mould of Black Cap Tom Bruce.

"Clarky broke his arm preseason but he's all good and has been training really hard the last couple of weeks and is on his way to making a recovery from an allrounder's perspective."

"He's probably a player who's gone a little under the radar which is pretty sad because he's strike rate, in both one-day and T20, shows he's the best in the business," he says, revealing he was only second to Sri Lanka import Mahela Jayawardene who won't return this summer after retiring from playing to secure coaching stints in the IPL and Bangladesh equivalent.

■ CD STAGS: Ben Smith, Jesse Ryder, William Young (c), Tom Bruce, Dane Cleaver (wkt), Doug Bracewell, Joshua Clarkson, Bevan Small, Ajaz Patel, Navin Patel, Blair Tickner, Ben Wheeler.
Coach: Heinrich Malan.