Cricket: NZ forced into naming squad

By Richard Boock

New Zealand Cricket was forced to make some rushed phone calls this week after the London-based International Cricket Council released New Zealand's 19-strong preliminary World Cup squad.

Unlike the majority of competing nations, NZC had initially decided against making its squad public on the grounds it was only required by World Cup organisers for administrative purposes.

However, after the ICC made the squad public on Thursday, red-faced NZC officials were forced quickly to ring around the unsuccessful players and inform them of their omission before they learned of it through the media.

The 19-strong squad, who will be cut to 15 in April, features the inclusion of the popular Wellington tearaway Carl Bulfin, left-arm spinner Matt Hart, and Auckland paceman Chris Drum, as well as the three New Zealand batsmen now on the injured list - Steve Fleming, Chris Cairns and Craig McMillan.

The squad include eight specialist batsmen, nine specialist bowlers and two all-rounders in Cairns and Chris Harris.

The selectors are still allowed to draft players into their World Cup plans from outside the initial squad, leaving a measure of hope for batsmen like Craig Spearman, Mathew Sinclair and Mark Bailey.

New Zealand squad: Geoff Allott, Nathan Astle, Matthew Bell, Carl Bulfin, Chris Cairns, Chris Drum, Simon Doull, Stephen Flemng, Chris Harris, Matthew Hart, Matthew Horne, Gavin Larsen, Craig McMillan, Dion Nash, Shayne O'Connor, Adam Parore, Roger Twose, Daniel Vettori, Bryan Young.