Cricket: Attitude behind Styris omission

Scott Styris failed to find favour with the selectors. Photo / Getty Images

Scott Styris' omission from the Black Caps to play Bangladesh appears to be a decision the selectors based on attitude rather than form.

The 34-year-old's performances in the HRV Cup made it appear impossible to leave him out. Styris has scored 274 runs at a strike rate of close to 123.

To put that in context, he has batted at better than a run-a-ball in every single match, except when he got four runs off five balls in the final round 'eliminator over' loss to Otago.

He has also taken 12 wickets at an average of 23.66, conceding 7.28 runs per over. Daniel Vettori gave away 7.24 runs an over.

In fact, Styris is second to Vettori in the overall MVP rankings for the tournament, which suggests he is pulling his weight.

He is also a proven match-winner. Surely all of that should mean the ink of 'SB Styris' should be drying on the team sheet?

One argument for his omission is a lack of form on the recent tour to the United Arab Emirates to play Pakistan.

But it wasn't as though Styris was alone and his resurgence in the domestic scorebooks this month is undoubtedly worthy of a reprieve.

Another justification is that it gives more inexperienced players an opportunity to get international game time against Bangladesh. Rest and rotation, if you will.

If that were the case, there would be strong arguments to let the likes of Brendon McCullum and Jacob Oram put their feet up as well.

The fact Styris has pulled out of test match cricket is thought to count against him. It hasn't helped that word has got back that he's allegedly telling players at national age group level not to worry about playing first-class cricket in the future because Twenty20 is "where the money's at".

However, his omission also brought criticism about him when the Herald on Sunday went asking.

Styris was offered the chance to respond to his omission and the resulting feedback but politely, and perhaps understandably, declined.

A number of well-known cricketers took minimum coaxing to comment on Styris as long as their names were not used.

Interviews always started with the open question: why has Scott Styris been left out of the Black Caps?

"Scotty kicked a lot of people on the way up, now he's getting kicked by a lot of people on the way down," one said. "He can be a bit of a bully boy with his pranks to try to fit in.

"Dan [skipper Vettori] would ask if he's a must-have? Most would say 'no'."

Another said: "He's highly competitive but when he takes the piss it can be misconstrued at times."

Other responses included: "He's seen as selfish, a difficult bugger," and "my heart's not bleeding for him. Cricket always revolved around what he was doing. Scotty's all about Scotty."

Finally, one said: "I suppose he could feel hard done by, but the selectors would have their reasons. Scotty keeps rising back up, he's got the thickest skin I know and he'll use it as motivation to keep going. The one-day and Twenty20 World Cups will be massive drawcards."

Some might consider these responses cowardly, given the guarantee of anonymity.

However, many said they were passing comment in the hope it might jolt Styris. They also hoped in a cruel-to-be-kind fashion that the situation could be resolved so Styris could be given an opportunity by the selectors and his team-mates to redeem himself and demonstrate his considerable talents at international level again.