"You've got to have the best players," Kernaghan said. He pointed out the world championships were being held late next year in Christchurch, where in 2008 Lawson had played with distinction, skipping the Black Jacks to double success in the pairs and fours.
"It makes sense that he should be in contention."
If the best players were not going to be chosen, Kernaghan said it was not worthwhile him making the commitment he still needed to put in to be properly competitive at international level.
While he had played well in the last 16 of the singles last weekend, winning his third singles title and his Gold Star for his fifth overall title, his performances had still been short of true international standard.
"I could not afford the bad start I had in the singles final or some of the other loose ends I played," he said. "The top international players just wouldn't let you back into the game."
Kernaghan said he had other commitments to consider before he played for New Zealand again.
He was chief executive for the Cancer Society in Otago and Southland and was committed to his role as an Olympic and Commonwealth Games selector.
The latter position could lead to a conflict of interest if he was in line for a bowling position at the Commonwealth Games.
However, he had clarified with the Games board that there would be nothing to stop him still being a Games selector and just playing at the world bowls championships.
Bowls New Zealand chief executive Kerry Clark said yesterday that national selection issues were the responsibility of the national panel, headed by Dave Edwards.
However, he said he did not know of any national sports body which could tolerate what effectively was a gun being pointed at its head over selection.
He pointed out many issues were involved in the national selection process and they were about off-green factors as well as on-green. Bowls NZ had carefully framed criteria for selectors to follow which emphasised values and compatibility and how players fitted into a national squad of men and women.
"I emphasise we are one squad," Clark said.
Hindmarch four's pain Lawson's gain
Northcote bowler John Hindmarch and his club-mates had the biggest hard luck story as qualifying rounds ended in the national fours championships on North Harbour greens yesterday.
At the Browns Bay headquarters, Hindmarch and his lineup of Shaun Bayne, Joe Whitelaw and Martin Short were heading for what seemed a certain win over the crack combination led by Gary Lawson and an upset for Bayne which would have been a repeat of his win over Lawson in the nationals three years ago.
But at 13-8 up with only three ends left misfortune struck for the Northcote four when Lawson and his front of Ben King, Danny Delany and Mike Kernaghan were rewarded for their draw bowling skill by picking up seven shots. That took Lawson's four to a 15-13 lead, which they never surrendered to finally win 16-15.
Hindmarch, who with Short was a regular Harbour centre junior representative, said with some justification that with the effort of his four, and some luck, they began to frustrate Lawson.
"He gave me a bit of stick at times, but I can take that," he said. "I played senior league in Auckland for 10 years."
The narrow escape enabled Lawson to qualify after just four matches, but for the Northcote four it was their third loss and the end of their tournament.
Though through for tomorrow's post-section, Lawson and his men then had to play Counties-Manukau's Shane McGonagle and his composite four which included the talented Raika Gregory. Again Lawson's line-up provided grief for their opposition with another escape, winning 18-17.
Fancied skips to qualify after four games included Peter Belliss, Rob Ashton, Tony Garelja and Raymond Martin, while Neil Fisher, Mike Galloway and Australian Sean Ingham made it after five. Ingham's match with Counties-Manukau veterans, George Shaw, John Tuohy, Ben Snookes and Jim Hart was one of the day's most bizarre. Ingham's line-up won 24-20, but only won six of the 18 ends.
In the women's fours, former Black Jack Sandra Keith had the biggest battle to qualify for post-section among the more prominent bowlers. Keith, Serena Matthews, Margaret Simpson and Rae Hammond only made it through in their sixth match and they needed an extra end to break a 14-all stalemate after 18 ends against a Paulette Mytton-skipped Browns Bay four.
Earlier, Keith had lost her second game to former international teammate Mandy Boyd, who qualified after four matches.
Others to do the same included Olivia Bloomfield and Karen de Jongh, from Auckland, Bev Corbett, from Waikato, and Birkenhead's Gayle Melrose.
