Cricket: Doubtful backs dull attack

Daniel Vettori

New Zealand's looming injury crisis over key bowlers Jacob Oram and Daniel Vettori is showing no signs of abating.

The pair have been withdrawn from the side to play the World XI today after suffering from back pain, and will find out later this week the full extent of their injuries.

The setback could hardly be more critical for the New Zealanders, as Vettori is the test side's most successful bowler, and all-rounder Oram adds important balance as a third-seamer-cum-No 7 batsman.

The worst fears are that the pair have suffered stress-fracture injuries in their vertebrae, something that would be a new experience for Oram but a recurring type of nightmare for Vettori.

The youngest spinner in the world to take 100 test wickets, Vettori initially damaged his back in a car accident as a child, was diagnosed with a stress-fracture injury in 2000, and aggravated it in his comeback test at Bulawayo.

The injury cloud is the latest in a long line of stress-fracture injuries involving high-profile New Zealand cricketers, among them Geoff Allott, Dion Nash, Chris Cairns and Shane Bond.

However, New Zealand Academy coach Dayle Hadlee yesterday warned about reading too much into the setback, saying the problem was a commonplace affliction around the cricketing world.

The former test bowler, whose career was destroyed by three stress-fractures, said the complaint had been around for as long as bowlers had been bowling with over-arm actions.

Apart from his own injury, similar conditions had also affected former New Zealand paceman Dick Motz, Richard Collinge, Gary Bartlett and David Trist, as well as Dennis Lillee, Brett Lee, Jason Gillespie (Australia), Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis (Pakistan) and Craig White (England).

"The point I have to make quite strongly is that it's not a New Zealand problem, it's an international one," Hadlee said.

"I think last year in Australia they had 10 first-class bowlers out with stress-fractures, but it's highlighted more in New Zealand because we don't have the same player depth."