Mark Richardson: Provincial form deserves shot
5:30 AM Sunday Feb 3, 2013The performances of Colin Munro, Mitchell McClenaghan and Grant Elliott in South Africa show that performances at provincial level in New Zealand cannot be overlooked.
There is a noticeable gap between international and our provincial cricket but if performances are overlooked because they are undervalued, then that will only exacerbate the culture of mediocrity.
Cricket ability must be judged over time. The game involves too much regular failure and making constant selection changes will, I concede, lead to a team constantly chasing its tail.
But current players must understand they cannot hide under the protection the lack of respect for the provincial game allows them.
This England tour is close enough to the South African one to warrant change after just one game if individuals continue to fail to front - and I urge the selectors to make that very clear. Now is not a time to be soft.
I've also no problem going back to former national players who are scoring runs and in form. It's not backwards progress because success in the present has to be the priority. I'm sick of continuing to describe players as having potential; they've been living off that tag for a decade. For the best chance of success, players performing at their best must be used.
So I'm excited about the selection of young Hamish Rutherford who could be a player for all forms. The hit-and-miss nature of T20 makes it the less-than-ideal proving ground for a new player but he does come from a culture of consistent success following the Otago Volts stunning 10-wins-in-a-row performance in the HRV Cup.
I desperately hope he performs because it would be another shot in the arm for the New Zealand provincial scene. It's all we have when change to the national team is needed. Faith in the provincial standard would mean the selectors won't need to take punts but can select upon consistency - not glimmers of potential.
That said, won't it be nice to have the money the ICC has granted to help New Zealand Cricket develop an A team programme? If used well, this will certainly help bridge the gap. But A team games must be just that - not practice games for incumbents or glorified youth teams.
It's good to have this money but something doesn't sit well with me about our cricket becoming a charity case. It feels as if money has been sucked out of our system at the expense of performance and, if I was an incumbent from the past five years, I would be just a little embarrassed about that.
What's then worse, at present, is the constant tinkering - let's make Flynn/Fulton/McCullum an opener/no. 7, etc.
Your final suggestion is, therefore, excellent. With an A team of players being constantly exposed to top class opposition, the overall standard would hopefully improve. Then if someone like Guptill is out of form, there's no need to 'hide' him somewhere else in the order, but get a better opener in, and allow him to improve his own game.
Perhaps Rutherford isn't scoring as prolifically as Peter Fulton or whichever other opening batsman is carving our weak first class scene, but perhaps we look at their batting style and technique and decide which is more likely to stand up to bowlers of the quality of Dale Steyn or Stuart Broad this summer.