KEY POINTS:
New Zealand's squad to tour England is to be named today.
The national selectors are performing dual duties this week, sorting out the 15 players for the three-test tour and working through the list of players to receive national contracts.
They will also decide on the country's top-20 players - with extra weight given to test matches over ODIs - who will receive improved contracts to kick in from June 1.
Two players who won't be on the list from last year are Shane Bond and Lou Vincent, who left New Zealand cricket to take up rebel Indian Cricket League deals.
The contracts are expected to be announced a week after the squad for England, which counts out any late flourishes from Wellington or Canterbury players who will start the five-day State Championship final at the Basin Reserve on Monday.
Borderline candidates such as Wellington allrounder Grant Elliott and his fast-bowling teammates Mark Gillespie and Iain O'Brien - all of whom have a chance, none of whom are certainties - will now be assessed on what they have already done this season.
The selectors - panel convenor Sir Richard Hadlee, who steps down after this squad is chosen, Dion Nash, Glenn Turner - and coach John Bracewell will be without five Indian Premier League-contracted players for the first two games of the tour, a festival one-dayer against an McC XI at Arundel and the opening first-class game against Kent.
They are unlikely to choose five players to fill in for captain Daniel Vettori, Brendon McCullum, Jacob Oram, Ross Taylor and Kyle Mills. No more than four, or even three, should be needed to fill gaps for the opening couple of games.
One intriguing aspect to the selection will be the philosophical approach the selectors take - go with experience or take a punt on younger, promising batsmen. The bowlers largely pick themselves.
Young middle-order batsmen Greg Hay (Central Districts) and Daniel Flynn (Northern Districts) might get the first two games to have a taste of action before stepping aside. They averaged 53.72 and 60.2 in the championship, with five centuries between them.
Or the panel could lean towards older hands for the bulk of the tour, such as ND's James Marshall, who, like Hay and Flynn, has put up good figures this season, 616 runs at 51.33, and has been in the test team before.
