Adams too good to be excluded
George Binoy
25-Feb-2013
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"Andre Adams is the dominant force in first-class cricket at the moment and, with Shane Bond injured, the best seamer in the country [New Zealand]," writes Dylan Cleaver in the Herald on Sunday.
"It is fair enough to express disappointment and concern from the last few months' proceedings but it is unfair to judge them [New Zealand] solely on the past couple of months," says Mark Richardson in the Herald on Sunday.
The losses in Australia were bad and we would all like to see a better showing against the best. That showing will only come about if the players are prepared to take a good look at themselves with enough realistic self-assessment to sting them into action. I'm not saying they need to try harder or show more ticker or any of those other emotionally based, uneducated cliches; but what I am saying is that they need to be stung into a course of action that will enable them to raise their games to a level whereby they can play their best cricket more consistently.
"John Bracewell's attempts to stir up the Australians were an illustration of how low New Zealand cricket has sunk at the moment," says Paul Lewis.
"Not for the first time, Canterbury batsman Peter Fulton has been primed for a trouble-shooting role this time in a New Zealand batting line-up that has shown all the reliability of an Auckland bus," says Richard Boock in the Sunday Star Times.
Also in the Sunday Star Times, Michael Donaldson says, "If New Zealand were winning you could forgive John Bracewell his eccentricities. But the team is losing and Bracewell has now taken enough rope."
George Binoy is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo