Cricket: Wanganui team named for Chapple Cup

Former captain Simon Badger has withdrawn from the Wanganui team for the rest of the summer.

The majority of the Furlong Cup squad has been retained but it will be an even younger Air Chatham's Wanganui team that takes the field in the Chapple Cup 50-over competition opener against Taranaki tomorrow morning.

For the return trip to Napier's Nelson Park, two more players of the ever-shrinking group of veterans are unavailable, one of them permanently, as former captain Simon Badger has formally withdrawn from representative cricket for the rest of the summer.

Badger, a lawyer, led the team from the front foot to their very strong results during the 2016-17 summer when he arrived from Auckland, but was unavailable for several key games last season, and is now soon to become a father for the first time.

"I sense a real good atmosphere around the group this year and am sure you will enjoy success that goes with the hard work you are putting in" Badger said when announcing his unavailablity.

"Badger has always led from the front and his contributions on and off the field will be missed," said Cricket Wanganui's Dilan Raj on behalf of team management.

In addition, Friday work commitments means allrounder Ross Kinnerley has to miss the the Taranaki game before rejoining the team for their weekend matches.

They have been replaced by Wanganui Collegiate's Hadleigh O'Leary and The Watson's Tech's Akhil Kumar respectively for their debuts.

O'Leary is the fourth current player from the school's First XI in the Wanganui side, coming in as a bowling allrounder.

He went on Collegiate's development tour of the West Indies back in January.

Canadian teenager Kumar, who captained the Ontario Under 17's at age 15, is in his second season of local club cricket and can make the side as their international player, given Tech clubmate Akash Gill is now qualified as a local.

Kumar followed Gill back to Whanganui last season, and did play well for the Under 15 representative team.

Otherwise, the team remains the same from the squad that lost on first innings points to Hawke's Bay at Nelson Park last weekend.

Traditionally the Chapple Cup, where the eight minor associations in Central Districts play each other in three matches across one weekend, is held before the start of the Furlong Cup two-day cricket season.

However, this year the first class Plunket Shield competition for the major associations started earlier in the second week of October, meaning accessing a venue and having Stags players available could not be done until now.

At last year's tournament, Wanganui lost to both Manawatu and Marlborough by six wickets after posting low totals, but got confidence from their ten wicket win over Wairarapa thanks to an unbeaten opening standing of 225.

However, both the Wanganui batsmen who scored hundreds in that match – English Greg Smith and professional Ben Smith – are no longer in the team.

The Wanganui team is
Charlie Hartley (player-coach); Chris Sharrock (Property Brokers United); John McIlraith, Angus Dinwiddie, Thomas Walshe (Marist); Dominic Lock, Ross Kinnerley, Akash Gill, Akhil Kumar (Watsons Tech); Ben Kelt, Sam Sherriff, Joel Clark, Hadleigh O'Leary (Wanganui Collegiate). Manager: Andrew Lock.