KEY POINTS:
New Zealand Cricket could be forced to find quality cricket for opener Tim McIntosh ahead of the much-anticipated Indian series in March.
McIntosh, Chris Martin and Iain O'Brien are unlikely to feature in New Zealand's one-day plans and a diet of State Shield and State Twenty20 matches will be inadequate preparation to face a side that have beaten Australia and, almost certainly, England in their latest two series.
Commercial realities dictate that the crowd-pleasing, short-form formats are scheduled for the school holiday period. In the past, they have tried to play the competitions together but it has not worked for players who have to switch between forms. Players are flown in and out of venues depending on what form of the game they specialise in.
McIntosh looks set to suffer the most as he would not even be a dead-set choice for Auckland coach Mark O'Donnell's one-day sides, such is his specialisation in the longer forms of the game. Desperate to carve a career as a test opener after years of knocking on the door, the last thing McIntosh will appreciate is being underdone.
It is a situation of which NZ Cricket are acutely aware. A spokesman confirmed to the Herald on Sunday that they were working on a plan for McIntosh. What that entails is unclear but the words "Hawke Cup" were mentioned, although that would probably be difficult to implement.
The Hawke Cup is the symbol of New Zealand minor association supremacy and the cricket, while not of an exceptionally high standard, is always played hard and there are opportunities to bat for long periods. Being an Auckland metropolitan player, McIntosh has no minor association affiliation but you do not imagine it would be difficult to slot in to a rep side should NZC acting high-performance manager and selector John Wright deem it necessary.
Another option could be grade cricket in Australia but that would contain significant difficulties.
While Martin, assuming he wins a recall, and O'Brien could be similarly disadvantaged, the principles of bowling do not change as dramatically across the various forms as batting does, particularly for a batsman who has earned his stripes on the back of a sound defence.
McIntosh will be able to squeeze two matches in for Auckland, at Whangarei and Queenstown respectively, and will almost certainly be named for the New Zealand XI to meet India in a warm-up match at Bert Sutcliffe Oval, Lincoln, preceding the first test.
In an ideal world, the selectors probably would not want McIntosh exposed to the Indian attack before the first test as they will be able to hunt for weaknesses while never exposing to the batsman their full repertoire.
Perhaps the best example of tourists getting one over the home side in this respect was when a New Zealand XI containing Martin Crowe and others played Australia at Pukekura Park ahead of a test series.
Shane Warne played but was instructed only to bowl his legspinner. He was handled easily enough, particularly by Crowe, but it was a different story in the first test when he unveiled all his chicanery on his way to match figures of 7-86 as Australia won by an innings.\
