Dane Cleaver (left) shares the warm fuzzies with Jesse Ryder after carving up his third first-class century yesterday in Napier. PHOTO/Duncan Brown
Dane Cleaver (left) shares the warm fuzzies with Jesse Ryder after carving up his third first-class century yesterday in Napier. PHOTO/Duncan Brown
When Manawatu coach Michael Mason heard Dane Cleaver had scored his third first-class century in Napier yesterday he paid tribute to his first-choice wicketkeeper.
"I'm so happy for him. It's great for Dane and great for the Stags," Mason said of the Central Districts player who scored an unbeaten 108runs at No5 alongside Tom Bruce (115 runs) to surpass a record fourth-wicket partnership that Bruce set with captain William Young in Whangarei in 2014-15.
A former CD seamer, Mason was quick to reveal Cleaver was going to represent Manawatu as a batsman, if not wicketkeeper, if CD coach Heinrich Malan was OK with it.
"Dane wants to play for us," said the former Black Cap who will have his wish after Malan yesterday gave a thumbs up to batsmen but not bowlers taking part in Hawke Cup matches this weekend.
Their opposition at Fitzherbert Park, Palmerston North, will be Hawke's Bay who have only bowlers playing for them in CD.
Bay coach Colin Schaw had expected Malan to rule no Stags for any side if the Bay couldn't have their players.
Mason intended to employ under-19 player Whetu na Nagara behind the stumps so as not to over-exert Cleaver, who is likely to be playing his sixth day of red-ball cricket by Sunday, although rain may dictate terms.
Manawatu will have Black Caps greater squad batsman George Worker returning from injury after playing alongside rising batting talent Mitchell Renwick and seamer Navin Patel at the Provincial A T20 tourney in Taupo on Tuesday and Wednesday.
"It must have been a very tough decision even for Heinrich," says Mason, aware the challenge would have been to try to slot in ex-Black Caps batsman Jesse Ryder somewhere in the Stags line up with a mindset of experience eclipsing youth.
"As soon as someone is not performing Mitch is going to jump in and he'll definitely do the job."
He bemoaned the lack of time his men have had to prepare on grass wickets due to persistent rain that robbed them of an outright victory against Wairarapa in the opening round.
Both sides claimed three points from that match.
"If we have one more rain-out it'll be the end of the competition for us but we can't worry too much about that because the guys simply want to play some cricket," he says.
Left-arm seamer Caleb Gaylard injured himself at training on Tuesday while captain Dave Meiring is bracketed with Arana Noema-Barnett.
"I guess I'll just have to jump in if anyone else breaks down by then," Mason says with a laugh.
