Cricket: Shadow test XI to get a workout

Brendon McCullum. Photo / Paul Estcourt

You could almost delete the "XI" from the name of the side to face Pakistan in their three-day tour game starting in Whangarei on Sunday.

There was a time when these matches would feature likely test batsmen but few of the frontline bowlers.

The theory went that the home batsmen would benefit from a good look at the tourists' bowlers, while it made sense to deny the visiting batsmen the same opportunity.

It also presented a chance to look at a cluster of fringe international contenders. Not so this time.

With the exceptions of batsmen Martin Guptill and Ross Taylor - who will feature in Sunday's HRV Cup final between Auckland and Central Districts - and one seamer, most likely Tim Southee, this New Zealand XI is a shadow first test team, for that match starting in Hamilton on January 7.

A couple of bowlers, captain Dan Vettori and senior new ball bowler Chris Martin, need a good workout as neither has had much activity recently.

So too opening batsmen Tim McIntosh and Brendon McCullum.

The Auckland lefthander has not been required for the domestic T20 since returning from India last month, while McCullum has been battling a back complaint picked up in Nagpur on November 20.

The choice of Trent Boult, the 21-year-old left armer from Northern Districts, gives him an opportunity in elevated company. His 11 first-class games have produced 30 wickets at 28.7 each.

He was last seen in New Zealand colours getting flogged about Manuka Oval in Canberra in January last year, when his 6.1 overs went for 56.

"He's a young bowler with considerable promise," selection panel spokesman Glenn Turner said yesterday.

The teams have agreed to use 12 players, which rubs it out as a first-class contest and also continues a modern, and unwelcome fad.

The extra New Zealand XI bowler will be named once Auckland and CD have declared their final lineups.

Cricket is supposed to be 11 vs 11. The decision adds an artificial element to the contest.

Meanwhile, Pakistan coach Waqar Younis has told the Code of Conduct Commission investigating spot fixing allegations against three players that he was "greatly surprised" by the giant no ball delivered by suspended teenage bowler Mohammad Aamer against England at Lord's this year.

That ball, and two others from Aamer and Mohammad Asif, helped spark the scandal which led to the two, and then-captain Salman Butt, being suspended by the International Cricket Council ahead of a hearing starting on January 6 in Qatar.

According to Pakistan's Dawn newspaper, in his testimony to the commission, Waqar said, "Aamer's front foot stepped over the line by a great distance, whereas usually, if anything, Aamer tends to bowl from well behind the front foot line.

"I was so surprised by the delivery that when we went back into the dressing room at the end of that morning session I said to Aamer in Punjabi, 'What the hell was that?'

"But before Aamer had the chance to answer my question, Salman interrupted from across the dressing room, saying: 'I told him to do it because the batsman was coming on the front foot. I told him to come forward and bowl him a bouncer."'

The team's security manager, Khawaja Najam, told the commission of vast sums of money in seven denominations being confiscated from the room of one of the players.

Butt claimed money in his room was for his sisters' marriage dowries.

Police found large sums in Aamer's room. All three players have denied involvement in spot fixing.

NZ TEAM
New Zealand XI to play Pakistan in a three-day game at Cobham Oval, Whangarei, starting on Sunday:

Dan Vettori (c), Tim McIntosh, Brendon McCullum, BJ Watling, Jesse Ryder, Kane Williamson, James Franklin, Reece Young, Brent Arnel, Trent Boult, Chris Martin, one to be added.