Cricket: Northerners expected to get A team callup

By TERRY MADDAFORD

Northern Districts and Auckland players seem certain to figure prominently in the search for the next generation of New Zealand test cricketers.

The two sides have dominated this season's Shell Trophy and that will surely be recognised with today's much-awaited naming of the New Zealand A team for overseas assignments.

Selectors Ross Dykes, Rick Pickard and David Trist admit that naming the A side has in many ways been a greater challenge - in whom to leave out rather than whom to select - than naming the Black Caps for the test series against Australia.

Originally, the A team was planned as a means of finding short-term test replacements.

That thinking has changed, with Dykes admitting that the busy winter programme is aimed at producing players who could answer the call to international duty in six months as well as three years down the test-playing track.

The selectors are expected to name a core of 10 players who will form the basis of three touring sides to play matches in Australia, England and India. It has been suggested that some, or all, of those 10 players have been part of NZ Cricket's academy programme.

Northern Districts, therefore, could find James Marshall, Daryl Tuffey and Bruce Martin on the shortlist, while Michael Parlane is another who could come into consideration.

The 10 players are likely to be joined by two others for next month's trip to Australia, where they will play two one-day games and a "test" against an Australian Academy XI.

The "biggie" - the two-month tour to England - will involve 15 players. That team, with New Zealand coach Trist and manager Jeff Crowe at the helm, face a hectic schedule.

They will play up to eight one-dayers and the same number of three-day games against full county sides. They are also expected to play matches against Zimbabwe and the West Indies, who are due in England at the same time.

In August, the A side will play in India - a mix of one-day and longer games - with three or four players likely to be added.

With the Black Caps expected to be back in action at that time in their one-day Asian campaign, some players from the side who tour England may well be promoted to the national squad.

Given the "former academy" status of players likely to be included, others who could come into consideration include Chris Nevin, who stands out as the wicketkeeping option, Jacob Oram and pace bowlers Michael Mason and Chris Martin.

Auckland allrounder Tama Canning seems a certainty, as does team-mate Brooke Walker, who has already had a brief flirt with the national side.

Glen Sulzberger's golden summer should be rewarded, while others such as Chris Gaffaney, Parlane, Kyle Mills, Lou Vincent and James Franklin have pressed their claims at times but perhaps without the consistency the selectors would have liked.

* Overnight rain followed by intermittent showers in Gisborne meant no play was possible yesterday on the second day of the Shell Trophy match between Northern Districts and Otago.

Northern should resume their second innings this morning at 103 for four, a lead of 110 runs after a dramatic first day on which 24 wickets fell.