Cricket: Canterbury trio eager for a longer innings

Nathan Astle and chums can at least consider themselves in good company as they battle to keep their World Cup dreams alive.

Loyal and long-serving veterans of New Zealand's one-day team, Astle, Craig McMillan and Chris Harris are among a small band of players around the world desperate to prove their worth for one last hurrah in the West Indies next February.

Already, all-rounder Chris Cairns has seen the writing on the wall and retired, only months after professing his passion for next season's Caribbean crusade, and his three Canterbury team-mates have also found themselves swimming against the tide.

All four will be involved in tomorrow's State Shield final against Central Districts at Christchurch, and for different reasons all will be anxious to end their domestic one-day commitments on the highest possible note.

Astle has just won an international recall but is clearly skating on thin ice, McMillan and Harris have been overlooked for the past two series and could be at the end of their ODI careers, and Cairns would simply like to bow out in a positive light.

It's a scene that's being played out around the world right now as national selectors try to find an ideal balance between youth and experience, in the hope that they can turn up at next year's World Cup in peak rather than declining form.

Cairns has gone; England's Darren Gough is almost certain to be missing next season; the Australians have already chopped Matthew Hayden, Jason Gillespie and Michael Kasprowicz, and Shane Warne has again ruled out making a comeback.

Astle is one of New Zealand's most prolific one-day batsmen but was placed on notice earlier this summer when he was dropped from the squad to play Sri Lanka and told to work on re-discovering his "positive intent" at domestic level.

Now reinstated, the hard-hitting right-hander will be 35 by the time the World Cup rolls around and would only need to suffer one more lean trot, against the Windies, or in next year's VB Series perhaps, to be in peril once more.

To make matters worse, Astle has compiled an abysmal World Cup record in his three previous campaigns, having averaged just 20.15 in 22 innings, including one 50 and a century against England and another against Zimbabwe.

Harris, on the other hand, has been challenged more by his own physical limitations than his on-field form, having not played for New Zealand since injuring himself in Australia last season. The popular Cantabrian, who will be 37 when the tournament starts, was also written off just before the 2003 World Cup, but eventually made the cut and ended up playing in New Zealand's most critical games.

Troubled by shoulder injuries that required surgery, Harris is only now starting to recover the ability to throw effectively, but - more worryingly for him - was overlooked for the series against the West Indies on form rather than fitness.

McMillan probably has a better shot at making it back in time for the World Cup given his relative youth (29), although coach John Bracewell made it clear this week that his claims for a recall were still inferior to those of Ross Taylor and James Marshall.

A determined character, McMillan has the sort of experience (175 ODIs) that Bracewell would love to have in the West Indies and has just started stringing a couple of scores together at domestic level, following a lengthy drought with the bat.

But whatever happens on that front, the Canterbury trio shouldn't feel alone as they attempt to reclaim their most striking form in time to persuade the selectors of their World Cup worth.

Former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly has found himself on the outer at the wrong time for his World Cup hopes, despite boasting an average of 40.65 and being one of the few batsmen to have scored more than 10,000 ODI runs.

LONG viewed as one of the most arrogant and self-obsessed batsmen on the circuit, Ganguly once commandeered the team bus at Napier airport so it could take him and his family to the hotel alone, and on other occasions urged younger players in his team to carry his gear.

However, the arrival of Greg Chappell as coach coincided with Ganguly's axing from the side and the promotion of Rahul Dravid as captain, a state of affairs that now seems likely to continue through to the World Cup.

Sri Lankan pocket battleship Sanath Jayasuriya, another member of the 10,000-run club, was dropped from the test side last year, and has also suffered injuries in both the swimming pool and shower, contributing to a disjointed one-day season.

One of the most proven all-rounders in the shortened game, Jayasuriya appears well-suited to the likely conditions in the West Indies but, at 37 years of age next February, is starting to be challenged by both fitness and form.

Even Pakistan giant Inzamam-ul-Haq cannot be completely immune from a selection controversy, given his well-documented aversion to fitness, his scarcely believable number of run-outs (38) and the fact that he, too, will be 37 by the time the opening ceremony begins.

The issue of carrying players well past their best became a hot topic at the previous World Cup in South Africa, where Pakistan bombed badly before sacking Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Saeed Anwar.

South Africa also felt reality bite in the form of an ageing Allan Donald, the once-great fast bowler who found the 2003 tournament a bridge too far, contributing in no small part to the host team's elimination.

The question now for selectors around the world, and especially for Bracewell, is whether to draw the line before next February, or after.