By TERRY MADDAFORD
The All Whites' merry-go-round is spinning out of control as the search for players to represent New Zealand on the international soccer stage continues its giddy spiral.
In naming 18 players for next month's Merdeka tournament in Malaysia, coach Ken Dugdale has included only eight from the 20-man squad who played in last month's Oceania Nations Cup in Tahiti.
Retaining their places are Ross Nicholson, who did not get any game time in Tahiti, Scott Smith, Sean Douglas, Gerard Davis, David Rayner, Jeff Campbell, Chris Killen and Paul Urlovic.
Three Football Kingz players, Jason Batty, Harry Ngata and Chris Jackson, were not released by their club, while Simon Elliott, Gavin Wilkinson, Raf De Gregorio and Kris Bouckenooghe were unavailable.
Dugdale, following his stated intention of building towards the 2006 World Cup, has called in Jeremy Brown, Chris Marsh, Graham Pearce, Blair Scoullar and Brad Scott from this year's under-23 Olympic team for their first full caps.
They are joined by other newcomers Ben Sigmund, who played for the national under-17 side in Egypt in 1997, and former Miramar defender Adrian Sutton, now with Perth state league side Floreat Athena.
There has obviously been a standoff between Dugdale and New Zealand on the one hand and the Kingz on the other.
While Kingz chairman Chris Turner still refuses to name names in saying just who has signed for the new season, he admitted yesterday that as well as four players, Batty, Ngata, Jackson and Riki Van Steeden, who are on two-year contracts, five more had already signed for 2000-1. A further six or seven have signed a letter of intent.
It appears that somewhere in this mix Ivan Vicelich, Che Bunce and Jonathan Perry are involved, but have not been made available for Merdeka. Others, including Urlovic and Davis, are apparently bound for the Kingz, but have the OK to tour.
Marsh's inclusion has raised most eyebrows.
After outstanding efforts against South Africa in the Olympic qualifiers, he returned to Dunedin and turned his back on the game.
"For all sorts of reasons he made himself unavailable," said Dunedin Technical coach Roger Brooks. "I find his selection most bizarre."
Dugdale said that with Batty's unavailablity and with former international Mark Paston also unavailable, he had put some gentle pressure on Marsh to reconsider.
Chris Zoricich, who missed the Nations Cup through injury, returns to captain the side. Also back is under-23 captain Ryan Nelsen after missing the same tournament.
The most glaring omission is Dunedin striker Aaron Burgess. He has scored 13 goals, one behind Ansett national club championship leader Commins Menapi, but failed to win selection ahead of Scott, who struggles to get a game for lowly Central United.
The All Whites play their first game on August 12 against Malaysia and their second two days later against Oman. The top two teams in each group qualify for the playoffs on August 18. The final is on August 20.
All Whites squad:
Goalkeepers: Ross Nicholson (Central), Chris Marsh (Dunedin Technical).
Defenders: Ryan Nelsen (US), Scott Smith (England), Sean Douglas (Aust), Gerard Davis (US), Adrian Sutton (Aust), David Rayner (England), Chris Zoricich (capt, Aust).
Midfield: Jeff Campbell, Graham Pearce (University/Mt Wellington), Noah Hickey (Central), Blair Scoullar (Dunedin Tech), Ben Sigmund (Chch City), Jeremy Brown (Manawatu).
Strikers: Chris Killen (Eng), Paul Urlovic (Aust), Brad Scott (Central).
Soccer: Few Tahiti survivors make squad for Malaysia
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