Kelvin Scott knocks on into the off side from the bowling of Richard Petrie, while 'keeper Mason Robinson watches. All 3 players were named in the New Zealand squad after the game. Supplied picture.
Kelvin Scott knocks on into the off side from the bowling of Richard Petrie, while 'keeper Mason Robinson watches. All 3 players were named in the New Zealand squad after the game. Supplied picture.
New Zealand Cricket has selected a 16-man squad to take on the likes of Jonty Rhodes, Alan Donald and Carl Hooper at next year's over-50s Cricket World Cup in South Africa.
The team, which includes former Blackcap all-rounder Richard Petrie, will be led by Auckland's Adrian Dale, a former countypro in the UK and New Zealand's top run-scorer at the 2018 tournament.
The squad includes six other members of the 2018 group, including star 'keeper-batsman Mason Robinson and prolific run scorer Petrie.
Robinson is New Zealand's all-time top run-scorer at over-50s level (342 runs at 57) and is the world's leading over-50s wicket-keeper, while Petrie averaged 112 with the bat at the 2018 World Cup and 102 at the Inter-Provincial Tournament (IPT) that concluded earlier this week.
Also returning are Auckland's Dean Askew, even at 57 consistently the fastest bowler at the IPT, Wanganui's Martin Pennefather, Canterbury legend Andrew Nuttall – at 62 the oldest player at the IPT – and Nelson's David Leonard.
Among the nine new faces are four South Islanders: former Otago opener Andrew Hore, fellow top-order batsman John Garry from Canterbury, and the aggressive middle-order pair of Kelvin Scott and Dean Read.
Auckland provides three of the newcomers, despite the team only finishing third at the IPT.
One interesting selection is left-arm spinner Glen White, a former Wellington Shell Cup player and current coach of the Grafton U10 Fire who bowls "tightly and cleverly".
He joins fellow Aucklanders Jon Cleland, who scored a fine 86 in the first round and bowls bustling left-arm pace, and Neil Ronaldson hit 142 runs in his three innings, with 10 sixes and a strike rate of 156.
One of the bolters in the squad is Wellington off-spinner Stephen Hewson, who emerged as the most economical bowler at the IPT (including one spell of 2/12 off 9 overs), despite having a broken spinning finger throughout the tournament.
Northland's Bert Horner rounds out the 16. Horner, a 'keeper-batsman, played for the full Northland squad as recently as three seasons ago (aged 49) and was the second leading run-scorer in the IPT, with 180 runs at 90, including a match-winning 79* in the first round.
The World Cup will be played over 15 days in Cape Town, with the final to be held at Newlands Stadium.
New Zealand's pool is comprised of a West Indies side that will include Carl Hooper and a raft of other former first-class players, Zimbabwe (featuring Eddo Brandes, Neil Johnson, etc.), Sri Lanka, Canada, and defending champions Australia. Each team plays each other, and the top two sides progress to the semi-finals.
Former international stars Jonty Rhodes, Alan Donald and Meyrick Pringle may feature in the South African side, while the England team has recently included Mark Alleyne, and Pakistan brought four ex-internationals to the last World Cup and is expected do the same this time.
New Zealand's first match is on March 11, 2020 against West Indies.
All matches will be live-streamed on facebook and at www.over50scricket.com.
The full New Zealand squad is:
Adrian Dale (Auckland) – captain Dean Askew (Auckland) Jon Cleland (Auckland) John Garry (Canterbury) Stephen Hewson (Wellington) Andrew Hore (Otago) Bert Horner (Northland) David Leonard (Nelson) Andrew Nuttall (Canterbury) Martin Pennefather (Wanganui) Richard Petrie (Wellington) Dean Read (Canterbury) Mason Robinson (Nelson) Neil Ronaldson (Auckland) Kelvin Scott (Canterbury) Glen White (Auckland)
