Stags young gun set for showdown

I T IS a pleasure watching Kieran Noema-Barnett chugging in to pitch a goodish length ball to tickle a batsman under the rib cage to give him a hurry-up.
It is equally gratifying to see him metamorphose into a middle-order batting maniac who gives bowlers serious stick the second they give him room to free up his arms.
But when things don't follow the script then it's so easy to forget the Central Districts allrounder is only 22 years old.
When CD captain Jamie How hands him the ball to bowl at the death in a cliff-hanger HRV Cup Twenty20 match, it is no doubt a testimony to how highly the Stags camp rate his potential to become an accomplished first-class player.
"It's really good to be part of the Stags side. Just being in the dressing room after a game with a lot of talented players and being a youngster I learn a lot," he tells SportToday before tomorrow's Twenty20 final.
The match against the Auckland Aces will be televised live from 2pm at Pukekura Park, New Plymouth.
The Napier Old Boys' Marist player's rhetoric echoes the Stags' mantra of "controlling the controllables". The Stags have had some unwanted media attention in the past few weeks with coach Dermot Reeve coming under censure for accusing the Aces' English import, Ravi Bopara, of tampering with the ball. Claims of player dissatisfaction followed but Mathew Sinclair told SportToday the Sunday paper had exaggerated what was a minor verbal exchange between Reeve and a senior player.
The former English international also sparked speculation he may not be at tomorrow's final after jetting off to Sydney to be with his wife and children but he is officially listed as coach for the final.
It is understood Reeve has injured his Achilles tendon while playing soccer during a training session with the Stags and may require surgery.
CD chief executive officer Blair Furlong rubbished media claims as pure speculation but reneged on releasing a press statement on Reeve this week.
"We're there to play cricket and the majority of us focus on that," says Noema-Barnett, who fancies himself as a left-arm batsman who can bowl right arm and is more in the mould of a T20 or one-day gladiator than a four-day exponent.
He doesn't believe the Stags see the lucrative mega-rich T20 Champions League in India this year as a motivational factor.
"If you let it affect you, then it won't be for the better. If you are motivated by money then you're not playing for the right reasons," says Noema-Barnett.
It's the second season for the Dunedin-born-and-bred cricketer who moved up here two years ago, not long after his parents, Neil Barnett and Aroha Noema, and his two siblings settled in Palmerston North.
Having played one season with the Otago Volts in the T20 competition, Noema-Barnett came to the realisation the Volts were a strong side and thoughts of finding himself on the fringes of selection weren't palatable.
The former Cavanagh College pupil's talent is indisputable. He had progressed through various Otago age-group teams. National recognition followed when he made the cut for the New Zealand under-17 tournament team before representing the country internationally in the under-19 World Cup in Sri Lanka in 2006. "I'll be kidding myself if I don't say I want to represent New Zealand [Black Caps] but right now I just want to cement a place for myself in the CD team with good performances," he says.
For someone who didn't discriminate between cricket, basketball and rugby, Noema-Barnett chose a career in cricket.
Soon after finishing high school, the 17-year-old packed his suitcase and jetted off to play in London in the Surrey League.
"I wanted some time away from studies and, when I came back, I did really well with the New Zealand Under-19s."
In many ways, the trip abroad was a coming of age. Not only did he come back with a healthier appetite for the sport but he also started to find his feet, maturing as a player and an individual.
"There comes an age when you can't live at home," he says.
 His high school coach, Mark Bracewell, put his feelers out to brother Brendon Bracewell, of Napier, and the rest is history. Noema-Barnett boards with former international Brendon, who also coaches the NOBM premier men's side and runs the Bracewell Academy in Napier for youngsters predominantly from abroad.
Noema-Barnett agrees Maori boys don't normally grow up fancying themselves as cricketers. He owes his passion for the game to his father and age-group coach Mark Henaghan, of Dunedin.
"My father and him [Henaghan] are responsible for getting me into cricket and providing the foundation and basics to play the game.
"I was always going along to his [father's] games and hassling him to throw balls at me," he says of his dad who played for the University Grange Club in Dunedin.
Support in sport, he emphasises, was plentiful at home because his mother also enjoyed her softball matches.
No doubt his family will be glued to the TV tomorrow, willing him and the Stags to become the 2009-10 T20 champions against an Aces side who have beaten them twice in pool play.