KEY POINTS:
When injured seam bowler Kyle Mills learned his name wouldn't be among the 30 announced as the preliminary squad for the Twenty20 World Championship, it's fair to say he was not amused.
Having just missed the trip of a lifetime to the Caribbean World Cup - though in retrospect not a bad one to miss - the inaugural Twenty20 world champs had obvious appeal. Add to that the four-over maximum workload and Mills understandably thought it the perfect way to ease himself back into top line cricket.
The selectors disagreed and managed, with the art of subtle diplomacy, to convince Mills the showpiece tournament would, in fact, be the worst possible forum to continue his rehabilitation from the knee injury that has blighted his year.
"My initial thoughts were that [I should have gone]. Twenty20 format, four overs a game, every second day - I thought it would be ideal really."
Selectors' manager Sir Richard Hadlee, in naming the squad, said Mills was never considered: "The selectors did not consider Kyle after medical advice. He is not yet ready to return to playing and has had no cricket for five months."
Mills took some advice from those closest to him and eventually came around to their way of thinking.
"It might have been the worst environment to make my comeback in," he conceded. "It's going to be pretty intense as it is and trying to ease a knee recovery through that, while the batsman's trying to smash you out of the park each ball, it might not have been the ideal situation.
"The other aspect of it is diving around in the field.
"So, even though I'm as keen as to get back into it, I've got to take the view that there's more to it than the next three or four months."
The frustration for Mills was that after years of chipping away at the fringes, initially to public disdain which soon turned to grudging, then unqualified, respect, he had established himself as an integral part of the New Zealand set-up before he developed a pain in his left knee that he couldn't shake.
If he was one of his beloved horses he might have been put out to pasture, but at 28 Mills said he had a load of cricket left to play, fetlocks willing.
"This has been a big injury and a big rehab and I really don't want to go through another one. If I had to do another it'd be my last one, probably."
Mills is up to week three of his bowling rehab after a running programme. The first week was spent bowling off one pace; last week he did a session under the eye of New Zealand Cricket bowling coach Dayle Hadlee off a few paces, and this week he is off a half run-up.
The end goal is to be bowling properly by the start of the domestic season and then, hopefully, push his way back into national colours.
"Things were going really well for me in the last 18 months. I was feeling comfortable in international cricket and performing reasonably well. I felt like it was my time, so to speak.
"So there's massive disappointment, but it's happened and I've got to look at the positives. The positive is this next era of New Zealand cricket is going to be a really exciting one."
