Cricket: 'Nothing to lose' - rookie

New Zealand will today pin their hopes on an aspiring real estate agent who was about to retire from the game at the end of the summer.

As Australia prepare to blood their first new player in the one-day game for more than a year, New Zealand confirmed yesterday that their 31-year-old rookie Lance Hamilton would be included in the playing XI for today's fourth one-day international at the Basin Reserve.

Hamilton, who received his chance after the mental disintegration of Daryl Tuffey and the withdrawal through illness of Andre Adams, will take his place in a drastically-altered side who are already trailing Australia 3-nil in the series.

Not only will New Zealand be without injured allrounders Jacob Oram and Scott Styris, they will also be missing their in-form spinner Daniel Vettori, who will rest his rickety back in order to be fit and available for the test series.

Hamilton said the way he looked at it, he had nothing to lose in the circumstances, especially as he'd made up his mind to end his career at the end of this summer, in order to concentrate of his new-found interest in the Hawkes Bay real estate market.

"I thought this was going to be my last season in first-class cricket," he said yesterday. "I was treating every match for Central Districts as if it was my last, and I certainly thought that - at 31 - my international prospects had gone."

But he said that, like the grapes in the Hawkes Bay vineyards, his body was maturing with age and that the selection boost had given him food for thought about his retirement plans, for the short term at least.

"This could tempt me to prolong things if things go well, but it could also hasten things if they don't go well," he said.

"I'm just going to take each game as it comes and worry about that sort of thing at the end of the season."

New Zealand have made three changes to the side crushed by Australia at Eden Park last Saturday, with Jeff Wilson, Craig Cumming and Hamilton replacing Vettori, Michael Papps and Tuffey for the showdown at the Basin Reserve.

The only slight consolation is that Australia have also made some wide-ranging changes, leaving out Ricky Ponting, Matthew Hayden and Brad Hogg, to create room for the full pace quartet, and Queensland debutant James Hopes.

Hopes will be the first rookie selected in the Aussie one-day side since Michael Hussey made his debut in February last year.

New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming said Vettori's absence didn't mean his side had given up on the next two games against Australia; it was just that there was real concern about how his back would last if he played every game.

"We're desperately keen to win the next two games, but we've got to work out what's the best for the team and for Dan as we look ahead to the tests," said Fleming.

However, Fleming refused to be drawn into the debate over Brett Lee's predilection towards beamers, citing his own poor form in the series so far as a good reason for not commenting.

"I'd like to see him sent home for other reasons," he quipped. "But not for that [bowling beamers]."

The lineups

New Zealand: Stephen Fleming (captain), Nathan Astle, Craig Cumming, Hamish Marshall, Craig McMillan, James Marshall, Chris Cairns, Brendon McCullum, Jeff Wilson, Kyle Mills, Lance Hamilton.

Australia: Adam Gilchrist (captain), Simon Katich, Damien Martyn, Andrew Symonds, Michael Clarke, Michael Hussey, James Hopes, Brett Lee, Jason Gillespie, Michael Kasprowicz, Glenn McGrath.