ND name their first XI players on contract

Northern Districts Cricket announced eleven players who were offered domestic contracts for the 2011-12 season, with Northland's Joseph Yovich, Brad Wilson and James Marshall in the mix.
Joining the ND fold is newcomer Daryl Mitchell, along with James Baker, and Brook Hatwell who were rewarded with contract offers after playing consistently and taking their opportunities in the first class games they played towards the end of the 2010-2011 season.
Jono Boult and stalwart Michael Parlane missed out on the first round of contracts, while Bradley Scott transferred back to Otago earlier this month. Parlane's brother Neil, also missed out on a first round contract with Wellington.
After making his debut for ND in 1996, and helping the side to nine championship wins, 34-year-old Yovich said it was always pleasing to be offered a contract following on from the 2010-2011 season, where he was not given a lot of game time.
"I hadn't thought about it too much and was leaving in their hands - I was always going to be playing cricket. They've offered me a another good contract and I will hope to reward that back by performing," the Whangarei-based cricketer said.
ND coach Grant Bradburn tried various starting elevens throughout last season year, and it was frustrating watching from the pavilion when not included in the line up, Yovich added. "It was disappointing I didn't play more and it was hard to watch from the outside a team that generally wasn't successful."
There was a lot of chopping and changing last season, and while it was good to try new lineups, he thought it was important to have a consistent core group of men on the field, he said.
Another thing the team needed to do for a successful season was get a little hungrier for the win. "In the past if we were given a sniff of victory we nailed it, but we didn't do that as well, or took our opportunities like we have done previously."
Not one to live in the past however, Yovich is solely focussed on the upcoming season.
Part of his duties as one of the older heads in the team, is to lead the side on and off the field.
He said he felt as fit as he did as a 18-year-old, and would start preseason training this weekend, as well as helping out the squad with their fitness if they needed it.
Yovich said the new and younger players in the squad deserved their contract offers and it wouldn't take long to initiate them.
"ND have a strong development programme, with good systems and funding, which allows them to be brought up to speed pretty quickly - they then put pressure on the incumbents - and it has a flow on effect ... they still need to earn their stripes however.
The omission of fellow stalwart Parlane and Boult were a bit of a surprise for Yovich, who said they still may have opportunities with ND in the next round of contract offers, and in the case of Parlane, it would be sad if this meant an end to his long and successful cricket career.
Cricket's six major associations named 9 to 11 contracted players in the first round yesterday and they will bring that up to a full contingent of 12 players on August 9.
 
Contracted Players
Northern Districts:Graeme Aldridge, Brent Arnel, James Baker, Anton Devcich, Brook Hatwell, James Marshall, Peter McGlashan, Daryl Mitchell, Anurag Verma, Brad Wilson, Joseph Yovich.
ND NZ contracts: Trent Boult, Daniel Flynn, Tim Southee (Northland), Daniel Vettori, BJ Watling, Kane Williamson.
Auckland: Michael Bates, Andrew De Boorder, Colin de Grandhomme, Gareth Hopkins, Anaru Kitchen, Bruce Martin, Tim McIntosh, Colin Munro, Jeet Raval, Bhupinder Singh, Daryl Tuffey.
Canterbury: Todd Astle, Dean Brownlie, Andrew Ellis, Peter Fulton, Matt Henry, Tom Latham, Ryan McCone, Richard Sherlock, Shanan Stewart, George Worker.
Central Districts: Doug Bracewell, Jamie How, Peter Ingram, Michael Mason, Adam Milne, Kieran Noema-Barnett, Tarun Nethula, Mathew Sinclair, Bevan Small, Kruger van Wyk, Ben Wheeler.
Otago: Nick Beard, Michael Bracewell, Darren Broom, Ian Butler, Craig Cumming, Derek De Boorder, Warren McSkimming, Aaron Redmond, Bradley Scott, Neil Wagner, Sam Wells.
Wellington: Joe Austin-Smellie, Harry Boam, Josh Brodie, Grant Elliott, James Franklin, Mark Gillespie, Stephen Murdoch, Iain O'Brien, Michael Papps, Jeetan Patel, Stewart Rhodes.