Closer NZ-India links likely following Academy tour

New Zealand, Australia and India look set to tie up a liaison which could be of immense significance for the development of young cricketers.

New Zealand Academy team coach Dayle Hadlee told CricInfo on Monday that the recently completed tour to India was "an outstanding experience, which will be valuable for the future of New Zealand cricket."

Not only did his side surprise the Indians by reaching the semi-finals of the Buchi Babu tournament, but it impressed with the quality of its play and the on-field attitude.

As a result, New Zealand has been invited back next year. It has been invited to not only the Buchi Babu tournament, but also a pretournament event in Bangalore and a tournament of one-day matches in Hyderabad. The Indians for their part are keen to come to New Zealand on a return visit before they tour Australia in March.

"We were the first foreign team to play in the 50 years this tournament has been played and we also got to play on the National stadium in Chennai which was a privilege," Hadlee said.

The tour came about as a result of discussions between Australian Academy coach Rod Marsh and Hadlee. Marsh told Hadlee that New Zealand should be looking to send faster bowlers to Dennis Lillee's MRF Pace Foundation in Chennai.

"Then when we were visiting Adelaide earlier this year, former Indian Test player TA Sekhar was there and he invited us to attend the Buchi Babu tournament. The Tamil Nadu Cricket Association then invited us to participate," Hadlee said.

Had New Zealand been knocked out of the tournament early on, Sekhar had arranged other games for the side to play.

"It was a fantastic experience. We'll have a debrief now and all the players will have a written programme to go away with and we will monitor their progress for the next year."

One of the most pleasing aspects of the tour from his point of view was the Indian surprise at the ability of the New Zealand batsmen against spin.

"They were astounded at our ability to play spin. But we put a lot of emphasis on that in our preparation. We even put dirt on the pitches at the High Performance Centre so that the ball exploded onto the batsmen.

"We wanted them to practice at a level above that which they would face in India. As a result our batsmen were playing defensive shots in front of their pads, they created the length by getting down the pitch to the bowlers, or going back, they worked the ball off their hips and they waited for the loose ball," Hadlee said.

The side registered five centuries in four games as well as five half centuries. There were two five-wicket bags for the bowlers and four four-wicket bags.

The development of players had been obvious during the tour. The first week they underwent some culture shock and then they had to deal with the problems of heat and humidity and cultural differences.

"They coped extremely well. They were a group of young players who are more mature as people and more experienced," he said.

Hadlee expects their development to be registered in this year's first-class play and some of his players, who have yet to score their debut centuries, should have more of an idea as a result of scoring centuries in the tournament against some quality players.

"The bar has been raised and they know that only big hundreds will do," he said.

Of the batsmen, Hamish Marshall finished with an average of 255 from his two games, including two centuries, although he suffered from heat stroke at stages of the tour.

Lou Vincent changed his game plan, narrowed his options and played some fine innings including a 133 not out.

James Franklin and Aaron Redmond emerged as the two top all-rounders with their different skills mix, Franklin with his left-arm mediumfast bowling and left-hand batting and Redmond with his right-hand batting, wrist spin and outstanding gully catching.

"All the Indian teams had trouble with Aaron's leg spin. There were very few Indian wrist spinners and Aaron took 19 wickets at 17.5 on the tour. He made some significant progress," he said.

Chris Martin was the leading pace bowler of the group.

Lessons for Hadlee from the experience were contained in the Indian approach to the game.

The Indians proved to be unorthodox opposition. Liking to get on with the game from the first ball, hitting the ball down the ground, ensuring that anything on the stumps would go to the on-side, rolling their wrists over the ball and being very quick on their feet, the Indians kept the New Zealanders thinking throughout.

"They put a lot of emphasis on yoga and breathing in their preparation. They are very supple and watching them warm up they got into contorted positions that we could never do," he said.

"The standard of the opposition was challenging and we were thoroughly tested. The majority of the opposing players were full-time professionals, most were first-class players and some were former internationals," he said.

The disappointment was the abandonment of the last game of the tour against MRF which had included four Test players in its side to really test the New Zealanders.

In his post-tour recommendations, Hadlee said he would like to see regular participation by New Zealand bowlers at the MRF Pace Foundation clinics run by Lillee and he thinks spin bowlers would also benefit from attending spin clinics run by two legendary Indian spinners Bishen Bedi and Erapalli Prasanna.

Another factor in the exercise was New Zealand selection convener Sir Richard Hadlee's presence as manager.

"He is totally worshipped over there and he opened a lot of doors for us and gained us a lot of privileges," Dayle Hadlee said.