Curtis? cricket message

Wairarapa senior men's cricket captain Sam Curtis has a message for local administrators.
He sees it crucial for the future of the sport here that the many younger players "blooded" in the 2006-07 Hawke Cup elimination series are given every encouragement to use that experience to their advantage.
Curtis said Wairarapa's effort of just the one win from their five matches may not look good on paper but that was something always likely to happen considering the youth of the team.
"The average age of the side at Blenhem this weekend was just 19...hell, I was the old man at 26," Curtis said.
"There is lot of potential there but we need to have structures in place to develop it, and that's the challenge our administrators have right now."
Curtis said the indifferent batting performance in both innings at Blenheim was not a case of players lacking the skills to make an impact at the higher level but more a case of poor shot selection.
"We lost a lot of wickets through players simply playing the wrong shots at the wrong time, and that's been a problem right through the season," he said.
"But it wouldn't take a lot to get that right...it's not something which can't be corrected with some concentrated coaching in that area of the game."
Curtis blames himself to some degree for Wairarapa's outright loss to Marlborough as he chose to bowl first on a wicket which flattened out early in the piece and became a batting paradise.
"The initial plan was to bat first but in the cloudy conditions and with the odd green patch on the pitch I changed my mind and that wasn't too smart on reflection," he said.
"I thought we bowled quite well through most the innings but there was little in the pitch for the bowlers and so it was tough to get wickets on a regular basis."
Curtis said even though Marlborough's 347 runs was a huge tally the Wairarapa camp was "pretty confident" of getting a first innings lead, or ar least going close to it.
"The wicket was so good we thought 300-plus was definitely on?but that's when shot selection let us down," he said.
"And it happened in the second innings too, we simply gave away too many wickets too cheaply."