David Leggat: Waikato bring back old-time excitement to test selections

Remember the old days, gathered round the radio waiting for the announcement?

"W.F. McCormick, Cannabree", the gruff voice boomed out, and so on as the anointed took their places in the All Black squad to head overseas. Because those tours were so infrequent compared with today, there was a frisson round the country. Who would make it? Any bolters? Who missed out?

So it will be in Hamilton tomorrow when 32 names are read out for the four-test tour to France, England and Wales.

Around this time last year, the All Black selectors were playing down talk of selections from out of the blue, then up popped Jason Eaton and Isaia Toeava.

But the selectors would no doubt argue their choices are not surprises because they have been picked by a process of knowledge, logic and reasoning. They'd probably shudder at the idea of the old take-a-punt wildcard selection.

This year's mix looks likely to include an extra lock (Keith Robinson) and an additional loose forward (Sione Lauaki, Liam Messam).

Those three happen to come from Waikato, who host the Air New Zealand Cup final in Hamilton tonight against Wellington.

It is a favourite saying of coaches and players that team performances promote individuals. In which case, Waikato cannot be faulted as they have been among the frontrunners all season. They will take a pack into the final bereft of a single current All Black. That should change tomorrow.

The likelihood is the 32 has been picked with perhaps one or two calls to be made after the final.

Henry is known to enjoy knockout football for the extra edge it brings to the contest and the players. Far more can be learned in that situation than in a no-account pool game.

Who will be the Eatons and Toeavas tomorrow?

* This week Shane Warne was dismissed while batting for Victoria in an early-season domestic cricket match in Australia.

On his way back to the pavilion, he was accosted by a female reporter from Australian rights holders Channel Nine. She stuck a microphone under Warne's nose and asked him a decidedly personal question about a development in his relationship with his former wife Simone.

Now, Warne has plenty of strikes against his name for his unpleasant social habits. But he's got my sympathy on this one. Apparently he did a decent impersonation of Vesuvius when he finally reached the dressing room.

This is a move to jazz up coverage before England's arrival for the most anticipated Ashes series in years.

In the days of World Series Cricket - Kerry Packer's late-1970s operation which heralded the arrival of coloured clothing and white balls - a bloke with a microphone was stationed at the boundary gate to accost departing batsmen for a thought on what had just occurred in the middle.

Unfortunately for both the chap with the mike and the idea, one of the first players confronted at the pavilion steps was Ian Chappell.

The former Australian captain has always been a man of forthright views who took a bad result, er, badly. In this case he hadn't been in the middle long.

"So what happened out there mate?" was the gist of the question beamed live to living rooms around the land.

"Bleepity, bleepity, bleep," came the response. And there ended a daft idea.

It should have been buried forever. It is fraught with risk. Apparently Cricket Australia didn't heed that experiment and is revisiting it.

Plans are also afoot to install cameras in the teams' dressing rooms, a la NRL or State of Origin league games, where you can see riveting television such as a group of players sitting in a circle having a think at halftime, or a sin-binned player staring at his boots while his mates muddle by without him.

I'm all in favour of the odd spot of gripping actuality but this is asking for trouble.

Administrators would be far better off focusing their efforts on what's happening out in the middle. Or, to lift the oldest piece of advice the game has to offer, from over a century ago, better they keep their eye on the ball.