Cricket: Break for McCullum in opening tour match

By RICHARD BOOCK

New Zealand wicketkeeper Brendon McCullum will be rested for the team's only warm-up match before this month's opening test against Australia.

The fast-improving gloveman will be replaced by the No 2 wicketkeeper, Gareth Hopkins, for the four-dayer against New South Wales starting on Thursday.

The decision came as something of a surprise announcement yesterday, given the New Zealand players have been barely extended on their present tour of Bangladesh, and would appear to need all the match practice possible.

McCullum, one of the few New Zealanders to have enhanced their reputation in the test arena this year, will now join the squad before the test in Brisbane, starting on Thursday week.

The 23-year-old was also replaced by Hopkins during last winter's NatWest series in England, when he returned home early for the birth of his first child.

McCullum, born and raised in Otago, but now playing for Canterbury, has quickly established his place in the test team and now averages 46.09 with the bat, after posting his maiden century at Dhaka last month.

New Zealand manager Lindsay Crocker said that McCullum had carried a heavy workload during the tour of Bangladesh as the only specialist gloveman in the squad.

"First, it gives Brendon the chance to have a few days off, which he deserves after his very good series in Bangladesh, and secondly it helps keep Gareth in the loop if something did happen to Brendon and we needed him to join the Black Caps at short notice."