Cricket: Two out of three on mend ain't bad

By RICHARD BOOCK

There is good and bad news concerning the New Zealand cricket team's injury-plagued bowling attack.

Spinner Daniel Vettori and vice-captain Dion Nash are well advanced in their recovery programmes and seem certain to be available for the tour to Africa, but bone scans have cast more doubt on whether World Cup sensation Geoff Allott will ever return to international cricket.

While the team's medical staff have been delighted with the progress of two of their injured trio, they fear the stress fracture in Allott's right-hand lumbar region may never heal, and are far from positive about him making it back to the top level.

Physiotherapist Mark Harrison said recent scans showed no significant improvement in the condition of the left-arm paceman, who shared a World Cup record 20 wickets with Shane Warne at last year's tournament before breaking down during the test series against England.

"It's probably a non-union," he said of the break. "Geoff's going to start some slow loading [exercises] and we'll see how he copes. He's still showing a few symptoms [of back pain] and a full recovery's doubtful - but I wouldn't say he'll never bowl again."

However, countering the gloom over Allott was the news that CT scans have revealed that Vettori did not suffer a stress fracture injury in his spine as first diagnosed, but had actually sustained a stress "reaction," which, according to Harrison, was a similar injury, but a level or two below the severity of a fracture.

The 21-year-old left-armer had barely finished celebrating becoming the world's youngest spinner to capture 100 test wickets when he was struck down by the back complaint during the second test against Australia.

New Zealand coach David Trist said yesterday that the new diagnosis on Vettori was a positive development which cleared the way for a quicker rehabilitation.

"The news concerning Daniel has been very encouraging," he said. "The fact there's no fracture allows his return to be accelerated, and gives him more time to prepare for the tour itself."

Nash, who played no part in the Australian series after suffering a stress fracture injury against the West Indies, is also ahead of his recovery schedule and is expected to commence bowling again in the next couple of weeks.

The right-arm seamer has apparently been working hard on his rehabilitation and is pain-free, and both Harrison and Trist are optimistic he will be available for the tour to Africa later in the year.

* Meanwhile, New Zealand Cricket chairman Sir John Anderson will take the opportunity to discuss the fate of the Zimbabwe leg of the tour with host officials at the International Cricket Council's crisis meeting in London this week.

Sir John, New Zealand's representative at the summit - convened with urgency to address recent match-fixing allegations - is expected to have informal talks with Zimbabwe officials about the volatile political situation in the African nation.

Although the tour is still four months away, plans have been drawn up to evacuate all European nationals if the campaign of violence intensifies, and it is not beyond the realms of possibility that many of the nation's cricketers may have relocated by the time September rolls around.

As Australia advised travellers to steer clear of Zimbabwe and called on all Australian nationals in Zimbabwe to review their security arrangements, NZC general mana-ger Tim Murdoch said it was still too early for New Zealand to abandon the tour.

"We're just monitoring the situation at this stage," Murdoch said. "The Zimbabwean situation has been well publicised, but the tour's not until August."