Cricket: Standoff leaves Auckland selectors stumped

By TERRY MADDAFORD

The success the Auckland side enjoyed last summer could penalise them when it comes to finding a team for the new season.

Nine players who represented Auckland at various stages last season were also selected for New Zealand and are therefore among those contracted to the national body.

Adam Parore, Dion Nash and Chris Drum have since retired, but until the players' dispute is settled, Auckland Cricket chief executive Lindsay Crocker is not certain which players will be available.

"We need to get a team together and I'm certainly confident of doing that," Crocker said.

"We have the State Championship title to defend."

New Auckland coach Mark O'Donnell has been left stranded by the strike, but Crocker said it was now up to the players' association to come up with a list of who would be available.

"I would hate to speculate at this stage who they will be."

While some associations have had their players turning out for representative cricket, Auckland's players have been restricted to club competition on artificial pitches.

"The biggest blow for us was the cancellation of the week we should have had at the academy in Christchurch and with it the opportunity to get our players some cricket on grass," Crocker said.

"But we have a strong premier competition.

"From that we have to select a team for the first round of the State Championship, from which, I presume, a test team will be selected."

In Hamilton, Northern Districts has cancelled next week's planned open day for young players and a breakfast launch for the new season.

Chief executive John Turkington said last night that he was now taking a "wait-and-see" attitude before planning his next move.

New Zealand Cricket chief executive Martin Snedden said last night that while he had not yet made firm plans to speak to the associations, he was certain there would be talks today.

The elder statesman of New Zealand cricket, Walter Hadlee, believes that greed is at the heart of the dispute.

"These players are already getting a very fair cut of the total income. I can only put it down to greed," he said in Christchurch.

It grieved him to see players wanting to "pluck every penny in advance".

"We came from a generation that loved the game. I don't think these people love cricket. They love what they can get out of it."

Hadlee's disappointment at the latest turn of events was echoed by Noel McGregor, who was a member of the first New Zealand team to win a test match - against the West Indies in 1956.

"These fellows are getting a bit unreasonable," McGregor said.

"Most of them would not have made the B team in our era.

"If some of them were paid on performance, they would be looking for a second job. They are not megastars - not too many of them, at any rate."