Cricket: Injury a chance for Butler

Ian Butler

Kyle Mills' pain appears likely to become Ian Butler's gain if New Zealand play Sri Lanka in the second one-day international tomorrow.

On a day in which Sri Lanka's tour of New Zealand was hanging by a gossamer-thin thread, New Zealand coach John Bracewell offered a generous appraisal of his under-used fast bowler, who seems a strong chance to replace Mills for the showdown at McLean Park, Napier.

Less certain is whether the second ODI will take place, given the disaster that struck Sri Lanka on Sunday, and the high-level talks taking place last night between the tourists' board and New Zealand Cricket boss Martin Snedden.

Presuming Sri Lanka choose to continue the tour, New Zealand will head into the match with a 1-0 lead in the five-match series, following their seven-wicket cakewalk at Eden Park on Boxing Day.

However, they seem unlikely to risk all-rounder Mills, who left the field with back spasms on Sunday, and did not travel to Napier yesterday.

With Butler almost certain to play instead, Bracewell yesterday chose to play down his comments from last summer, when he said that the shortness of McLean Park's side-on boundaries made the paceman a risky proposition.

At the time the remarks were viewed by some as being cutting, in that Bracewell seemed to be indirectly questioning Butler's ability to hurry batsmen on the back-foot, one of the major weapons of most aspiring fast-bowlers.

But asked again yesterday, the New Zealand coach laughed at the memory and said Butler was a far better bowler today, and was on track to play a role for his team at the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies.

"I think Ian's a vastly improved bowler on last year, when he was a one-length practitioner," said Bracewell.

"Now he can get the ball in the block-hole, he can swing it, and he has a pretty useful slower ball. It's about game-time for him and that's something we'll be trying to accommodate as we move towards the next World Cup."

Apart from Mills' back problem, Bracewell also has a bed-ridden Mathew Sinclair on the doubtful list, and is monitoring the state of Chris Cairns, who woke yesterday morning with a stiff ankle after slipping during his delivery stride on Sunday.

The uncertainty has led to Auckland's Andre Adams being placed on stand-by for Mills and Cairns, and has prompted Bracewell to consider drafting in another batsman as cover for Sinclair.

"Mathew's going at both ends at the moment," said a candid Bracewell.

"He's got trouble with his guts, and we're awaiting the results of some tests to find out if it's a virus or food poisoning."

As for Mills, Bracewell was optimistic that the Auckland all-rounder would make a quick recovery and be available for the remainder of the tour, and wouldn't completely rule him out for tomorrow's match in Napier.

"We've been on the road for a long time now and we're getting used to dealing with injuries, and recognising the difference between a niggle and a genuine injury," he said.

"Kyle stayed behind to allow more time for his back spasms to ease. It's something that he's been through before, and it's something that's generally taken 48 hours to come right."

Bracewell said he was pleased that his side were able to harness the conditions in Auckland on Sunday, but warned that Sri Lanka were ranked as the second-best ODI side in the world, and that they were unlikely to fade away.

In particular, he said there should be no repeat of New Zealand's lapse last summer in Queenstown, when they dropped their only ODI against Pakistan after making a successful start to the series at Auckland.

"It's true, we did let Pakistan back in last summer but then we plugged the gap pretty quickly.

"Sometimes you have to take a step backwards to make some real progress and I think that's what might have happened on that occasion.

"Complacency isn't something that's affected our ODI game for a while now, but I'm sure it will be mentioned, and I'm sure our guys are already very aware of it."