Former Black Caps batsman Daniel Flynn is a way off pushing himself back into the selection frame for the Knights, according to Northern Districts second XI coach James Pamment.
Pamment's A side, stacked with experience, including former Black Caps Flynn, James Marshall and Brent Arnel, were third at the week-long domestic A tournament after three wins, a tie and a loss in the one-dayers, and one win and two losses in the Twenty20.
Flynn, making his comeback from hip surgery, scored 48, 1, 19, 2 and 0 in his three one-day digs and two Twenty20 games.
"Flynny probably didn't perform as well as he would have liked," Pamment said, "and it was obvious he's still not 100 per cent recovered from injury.
"He certainly looks a wee way off, but Daniel's a pretty determined young man who knows what he can do himself. He's had a serious hip operation and probably needs to give himself a bit more time to make sure he's close to 100 per cent before he gets back in that arena."
ND didn't capitalise on their tidy one-day form by winning the National Provincial A tournament at Lincoln but Pamment is more disappointed individual players never used the games to push for promotion into the Knights.
Arnel played in every match and took nine wickets at a handy economy rate while Marshall averaged just six with the bat.
Pamment said the chance was there for individuals to boost their prospects.
"Winning the tournament was never the aim - not my aim, not the team's aim. It was all about individuals making sure they were posting significant performances to let the Knights selectors know they were ready to step up.
"On review, if you look at the stats our players put up, whether they were batsmen or bowlers, not many could say 'yes, I had a good tournament, yes I won some games, yes I'm ready to step into the Knights'.
"Even though we won some games, finished in the top three and won the one-day component I'm still disappointed the players didn't step up. The facilities here and the environment created was conducive to players going out and performing and senior contracted players in other groups, like (Auckland's) Jeet Raval and Tim McIntosh, performed."
None of the bowlers took a five-wicket haul while Brooke Hatwell (7, 39, 88, 23, 8, 56 and 47) and Daryl Mitchell (18, 49, 57, 3, 35, 31, 2, 54no) were the pick of the batsmen, with Bay of Plenty captain Jono Boult making a couple of half-centuries. ND A will round out their season with a mix of one and three-day games against Auckland over the next two and a half months.