KEY POINTS:
Last season Auckland finished third in the domestic first-class championship, but forget any talk about going a step or two further when their campaign starts against Canterbury at Rangiora today.
As far as coach Mark O'Donnell is concerned, he won't even spin the hoary old line about it being a case of one game at a time. In O'Donnell's book it's more like one ball at a time.
"To say it's to win is too vague," he said of Auckland's goals for the summer yesterday. "It's very much about breaking it down into components."
The first of them is the opening four first-class games, which take Auckland through to Christmas, at which point the focus switches to the one-day State Shield and does not return to the championship until early March.
Auckland are starting the State Championship a week ahead of everyone else as they have a game against the West Indies at Eden Park from December 5-7.
Canterbury won the title, beating Wellington in the final, but in O'Donnell's book that means nothing. The table is clean for the start of a fresh competition. If he had one wish it would be for more lead-in cricket.
Auckland's only preparation has been two practice games against Northern Districts at Whangarei last week, and they've only been practising outdoors on grass since Friday.
Underdone? Just a touch. If they come out of their first two games _ Canterbury followed by Central Districts in Napier _ with solid performances on what are expected to be good batting strips, and first innings points, they'll probably be happy.
English import, Lancashire's Steven Croft, flexes his allround skills for the first time today.
O'Donnell's main on-field concern at Rangiora will be working out how to get 20 Canterbury wickets.
Cornwall's legspinning allrounder Tarun Nethula will make his first-class debut if he is named in the final XI before the start, and Auckland have two internationals in their 12, wicketkeeper Gareth Hopkins and ODI-only batsman Scott Styris.
