KEY POINTS:
Lost amid the hubbub of the captain, among others, turning up late for the plum tour of most players' careers, and Aaron Redmond's number coming up on the opener's roulette wheel was a more inexplicable selection - or non-selection in this case.
Chris Martin's omission from the one-day segment of the England tour has apparently stunned several of his team-mates, one of whom offered the off-the-record assessment that it was simply "bizarre".
It has stunned Martin too. The quietly spoken seamer is not the type to make a song and dance of anything but you can rest assured he will asking for a 'please explain' the next time he crosses paths with any of the panel.
Martin's record in ODIs is not terrific, it has to be said, but how do we know after just 20 ODIs scattered sporadically throughout his career?
To try to state a case for Mark Gillespie, Michael Mason and even the inexperienced Tim Southee ahead of him goes well beyond bizarre and into a twilight zone inhabited only by Sir Richard Hadlee, John Bracewell, Dion Nash and Glenn Turner (who, you may remember, thought Robert Kennedy would make a fine ODI bowler).
In an era when New Zealand's principal seamers like Shane Bond, Kyle Mills and Jacob Oram have all struggled with injury, Tommy Martin has been a constant.
No, he can't bat, and you wouldn't stake your life on him under a steepler, but he's a better fielder than Gillespie and not far behind Mason. Neither of those two are threatening allrounder status with the bat either, though Gillespie will always be remembered after fluking some runs in that epic Chappell-Hadlee run chase last year.
Martin's dumping is a nonsense; it's just a shame it is only his team-mates and not the selectors who recognise that.
Northern Districts' under-the-radar seamer Brent Arnel has won the Deloitte Domestic Player of the Month Award for March. Arnel spearheaded the ND attack, picking up 26 wickets from four matches at an impressive average of 17.4.
Arnel was the top wicket-taker during the State Championship with 33 at 20.93.
What made his March haul all the more impressive was that it is the month considered the best for batting in New Zealand.
Arnel pocketed the first five-wicket bag of his 16-match first-class career against Otago and consistently picked up wickets in the other matches. The stand-out performance was a career best 6-82 against Central Districts on a flat wicket in Napier. He followed this up in the second innings with four wickets to claim a 10-wicket bag.
Arnel headed off challenges from team-mate Daniel Flynn, who scored two centuries in March, and Gareth Hopkins who averaged 58 for the month.
Arnel receives a V8 putter and travel luggage courtesy of PGF Ltd.
