Cricket: It's that Sinclair feeling

By RICHARD BOOCK

Mathew Sinclair can thank Katherine for the call he received yesterday from the New Zealand cricket selectors.

The 24-year-old batsman has been rushed into the New Zealand team as a replacement for the injured Matt Horne and seems poised to make his debut in the second test against the West Indies starting on Boxing Day.

Initially a leading contender for a spot in the first test side, Sinclair was eventually called in after another irresistible campaign with the bat, which this season started in his Northern Territory birthplace of Katherine.

The Central Districts right-hander headed back to Katherine to play cricket during the New Zealand winter, a move which gave him a running start at the beginning of this summer's programme and ultimately proved a springboard into the test squad.

"I had a choice of either staying in New Zealand and working on my game at the Academy or going back to where I was born to play a bit of senior A cricket," Sinclair said yesterday. "And I was pretty happy with how everything turned out.

"The standard was reasonable, I was making runs, and it seemed to be quite beneficial in terms of maintaining form."

Asked by the selectors to force their hand by making genuinely large scores, the New Zealand A batsman has kept his half of the bargain. All his four first-class centuries have been in excess of 150, with his 182 for the North Island against England A last month further enhancing his chances of a call-up.

He averaged 104.60 in last season's Shell Trophy, 58.78 in the first-class cricket overall, and his career average of 45.96 is the highest of any regular first-class cricketer still playing in New Zealand.

Sinclair, who returned to New Zealand as a five year-old with his Kiwi-born mother after his father was killed in a car accident, said he was both excited and nervous about being picked for the test squad, but extremely happy to be joining a winning combination.

He seems most likely to be asked to bat at No 3, with Craig Spearman moving up a place to open the batting with Gary Stead, but there is an outside chance the New Zealand brains-trust will either use him as a direct swap for Horne, or bat him further down the order.

Convener of selectors Ross Dykes said form had been the compelling factor in Sinclair's favour when the panel discussed Horne's replacement.

"Mathew placed a great deal of pressure on the incumbents and now has a chance to show he can transfer his outstanding first-class form into the international arena," Dykes said.

Horne, meanwhile, is almost certainly out of the West Indies series after x-rays showed two breaks in his right hand, both apparently some distance from where he took the initial blow on his index finger.

New Zealand have opted to train in Auckland and play a practice game tomorrow before heading to Wellington to prepare for the final test.

The selectors have omitted Andrew Penn from the 12-man squad now that Dion Nash has proved his fitness, with the only other change involving Horne's withdrawal and Sinclair's inclusion.