Auckland coach Mark O'Donnell believes scheduling hasn't helped the Black Caps' chances against Australia in the three-test series. He says a first-class match should have been played after the one-dayers and before the start of the tests.
"You want quality preparation between games," O'Donnell said. "They finished the one-dayers on
the 5th [of March] and began again on the 10th. OK, that's five days but you're going to have guys [who've missed] that first-class game from [March] 4th to 7th. That should have been scheduled in to allow players, certainly guys coming into the tests, to play that first-class game. You have to think of scheduling a little more carefully," he said.
O'Donnell said the gulf in class between the two teams can be put down in large part to injuries to Jacob Oram, Shane Bond, Scott Styris and co but he also believes it has highlighted just how crucial it is for the first-class associations to raise the bar in terms of preparing the right conditions for players.
"It's critical to play on better wickets that simulate what you get in international cricket."
O'Donnell said since returning from South Africa two years ago the standard of first-class cricket had remained "relatively static".
"I don't think the decks have helped in a lot of ways. Compared to Africa or Australia you bowl a far fuller length at first-class level than you do internationally - you can get away with that because the ball will do enough. You do that internationally and you just get hit through the line."
O'Donnell would like first-class cricket concentrated on one facility in each association. At present, provinces like Central Districts and Northern Districts, in particular, try to spread cricket evenly around the regions.
The one province, one ground principle was supported by players in a survey last season.
