Cricket: 'A' game falling short

Scoring a bucketload of runs or taking a hat full of wickets for your province is no longer enough to gain selection for New Zealand. Promising cricketers are expected to follow a royal line through the Academy, first-class cricket (Canterbury preferably), and New Zealand 'A' teams before being considered.

Recent results, particularly overseas, would indicate it's proving to be an ineffective method of grooming test players - at triple the cost it did in the past.

But the concept of 'A' cricket tours look like they're here to stay, despite the low return it has provided the Black Caps.

New Zealand Cricket (NZC) bosses see the initiative as vital to a successful test-match future, despite healthy scepticism from their employees, the players.

The 'A' tours were designed to provide a stepping stone between a weak domestic first-class scene and international cricket, but so far there is little evidence to suggest that players are finding the transition to test and one-day internationals any easier than in the past.

The Herald on Sunday understands that many players are unconvinced the 'A' concept has added any value and would rather see the money being used to expand the first-class domestic season and provide better coaching at NZC's high performance centre at Lincoln.

"The players' views on the 'A' concept are mixed," New Zealand Cricket Players' Association manager Heath Mills said. "There is no question the players would prefer to see a return to two full rounds of four-day cricket."

Mills said that while the majority of players saw merit in second-tier players getting experience in overseas conditions, it should not come at a cost to the domestic game, which he said was as strong as it had ever been.

At the moment each of the six major associations plays eight four-day games a year but a return to 10 matches is favoured by those who see the State Championship, rather than 'A' tours, as the breeding ground for successful test and one-day international players.

High performance manager Ric Charlesworth said it was "too early" to make judgements.

Charlesworth said it would be desirable to have two full rounds of the State Championship but you "have to cut your cloth" depending on the resources you have available.

"New Zealand Cricket had to make a judgement call and I think they've made the right one," said the Australian who joined the national body last year.

But Charlesworth said when you look at the numbers it is "self evident" that New Zealand needs a step in-between test and first-class cricket.

"New Zealand has six first-class teams and four million people; Australia has the same amount of teams for 20 million people," he said, implying that the talent is spread too thin to make the State Championship an internationally competitive battleground.

However, a counter-argument could be launched that Australia didn't become the No 1 team in the world off the back of an 'A' programme, but by investing its resources into the Pura Cup (formerly Sheffield Shield).

The struggles of 'A' graduates such as James Marshall (test average 23.7), Jamie How (12.2), Michael Papps (20.8) and, to a lesser extent, Peter Fulton (26.4), plus any number of seamers that have played for New Zealand in recent seasons, tend to suggest that the 'A' programme is flawed, or just not working.

There is also a suggestion it has become an irrelevant selection tool. On the 'A' tour to Sri Lanka last year, in the three 'tests' Mathew Sinclair scored 192 at an average of 48, exactly the same figures as Peter Fulton and significantly superior to Jamie How (75 at 25) and Michael Papps (65 at 16.25), yet only Sinclair has missed selection for the Black Caps since.

"People are going to struggle when they step up to test cricket no matter where they've come from," Charlesworth said.

The former Australian hockey rep and first-class cricketer also said New Zealand conditions don't necessarily prepare cricketers for playing in places like the subcontinent.

But a counter-argument is that 'A' tours are effectively a series of trial matches and are, by definition, artificial in nature and unlikely to provide the competitive edge you get in domestic cricket.

"I don't agree with that premise," Charlesworth said. "'A' tour matches are a selection opportunity but then so is every first-class match."

While the Black Caps will swing into one-day mode with the World Cup less than a year away, long-term strategies must be put in place to arrest New Zealand's dismal slide into test oblivion, as evidenced by the poor 0-2 performance in South Africa.

New Zealand might be sixth on the ICC test rankings but it has been seven years since it beat any of the sides ranked ahead of it in a test match, when it defeated England (who were then ranked below New Zealand), 2-1.

New Zealand is sending two development teams to Darwin and Cairns as part of its build-up to the World Cup in the West Indies. They will play Australia 'A', Pakistan 'A' and India 'A' in a series of matches.