Cricket: Australian opportunity to push Black Cap claims

To justify the expense of sending two development teams to Australia for a month this exercise must throw up some potential international cricketers.

While nobody outside of team managers Dayle and Richard Hadlee and Ashley Ross will care about the results in the Top End Series, the expense could be justified if it presents Black Caps coach John Bracewell with genuine World Cup options.

Presumably that's part of Ross' job as national high performance coach, to build depth in New Zealand's playing stocks. If it is, the jury is still deliberating.

In reality, with just months to go before the World Cup, Bracewell and his selectors will have the bulk of the squad pencilled in. But there are still a few on the outside who could come into the calculations with some strong performances.

Jesse Ryder (Black team, Wellington): The one-time enfant terrible of New Zealand cricket last season showed signs of maturity, on the field anyway, but still has much to prove to selectors who remain unconvinced he wants to play international cricket badly enough.

A contemporary of Ross Taylor, Ryder has an equal amount of talent and the advantage of being a left-handed top-order batsman, something New Zealand is desperately lacking. Ryder smashed 65 off 46 balls on Friday before being run out.

He is a handy bowler too, but nothing that is ever going to scare international batsmen.

Mathew Sinclair (White team, Central Districts): When naming the Black Caps' 20 centrally-contracted players, the selectors indicated they viewed Sinclair primarily as a test player but Sinclair offers plenty in the one-day arena, particularly as an opener.

It's obvious those in high places are never going to love Sinclair the person so he'll have to persuade them to love the amount of runs he scores. He should work on the theory that he has to score double the runs of Michael Papps, James Marshall and Jamie How to get the same recognition.

So his fifth ball duck on Friday was probably not the start he wanted.

Brendon Diamanti (Black Team, CD): New Zealand is desperately short of adequate seam bowling back-up but Diamanti's progress has been encouraging. The 25-year-old had a good State Shield for the runners-up last season and his economy rate of 4.21 runs-per-over immediately catches the eye.

The Blenheim boy is probably battling with Graeme Aldridge and Mark Gillespie in that tier below the Black Caps though Diamanti did himself no favours with five expensive overs in his team's emphatic victory over a Northern Territory XI on Friday.

Richard Sherlock (White Team, Canterbury): If not for the fragility of the speedster, Sherlock would have likely played international cricket by now.

His pace excites those lucky enough to see it but the reality is Sherlock breaks down more often than New Zealand's only other genuine quick, Shane Bond.

The 22-year-old has only managed seven first-class matches and one List A match in his 22 years and is the longest of long shots for the World Cup but if Bond's gone, he's the next quickest off the rank. He bowled 10 tidy overs on Friday, finishing with 0-31.

Jamie How (Black Team, CD): Okay, so How was already in the side last season but did enough to play his way out of it by the time they left South Africa after the end-of-season test tour.

So far all we have is the selectors' word he is good as his figures don't support it - test average 12.2, ODI average 28.2, first-class average 33.3, List A average 29.7.

That's his problem. He's got to move beyond potentially excellent opener to genuine World Cup option. He started this tour the right way with a century against Australia A. His 123 off 123 balls set up his side for a crushing eight-wicket victory against an Australian 'A' team that included 10 players who had played for the senior team.