CRICKET - Southee's 'enormous talent' bowls over Paddles

WORDS of encouragement by New Zealand's greatest fast bowler are music to the ears of Maungakaramea's Tim Southee as he prepares to take part in his first senior international match on Sunday.
New Zealand Cricket selection manager and Kiwi great Sir Richard Hadlee said Southee was a player for the future and that was why he was selected in the New Zealand XI for the Twenty/20 match against Bangladesh in Hamilton.
"He's an enormous talent, it's exciting to see a 19-year-old come through the system to be playing first-class cricket for Northern Districts," Hadlee said from Hobart yesterday.
"What I like about him is he is a tall young man who has a good approach to the wicket, with a nice, high action, and he can move the ball around - especially away from the batsman - which is a very good quality for a new ball bowler to have and he's had some early success but he's certainly a player for the future," he said.
Southee was due to play in the curtainraiser for the match at Seddon Park - a game featuring his New Zealand under-19 side against a New Zealand Masters side - and was stunned by the call-up.
"My ND coach Andy Moles rang me and told me the other night that I was playing in the second game and not the first - which took me completely by surprise," Southee said.
"It will be good to play with some of the big names of the game and we'll just have to see how it goes," he said.
Southee gets to play alongside many of the Black Caps who completed the Chappell-Hadlee series in Australia yesterday, and Stephen Fleming, who will captain the side.
"It's an opportunity for a number of Black Caps, who haven't really played much cricket on this tour of Australia, to get some cricket in before they go on and play against Bangladesh," Hadlee said.
"The match is also an opportunity to promote some young players - the other one was Jesse Ryder but he's had to pull out through injury - but Southee is a bowler who we want to promote and give an opportunity at this level," he said.
Ryder was forced out with an ankle injury, meaning the 12th man, Kaipara Flats batsman James Marshall, will join the playing eleven.
Southee has been coached a fair bit by national bowling coach Dale Hadlee but has had little to with Sir Richard at this stage.
But Hadlee, it appears, knows a fair amount about him, including receiving "very, very favourable comments from the great man himself, Dennis Lillee" after Southee attended the Australian bowling legend's bowling clinic in Chennai, India, last year.
Southee is looking forward to getting out there in his first senior international match - without too much pressure of expectation.
"There's not really going to be much pressure, it's going to be a bit of fun, it's not really a serious game," the young bowler said.
The proceeds of the tourists' final warm-up match, before the first ODI at Eden Park on Boxing Day, will go towards World Vision's relief efforts to help the devastation left by Cyclone Sidr in Bangladesh.
New Zealand XI: Stephen Fleming (c), Jamie How, Peter Fulton, Ross Taylor, James Marshall, Scott Styris, Gareth Hopkins, Jeetan Patel, Tim Southee, Michael Mason, Iain O'Brien.