Franklin hopes to start domestic season on time

James Franklin, the New Zealand fast bowler, hopes to start the 2008-09 domestic season on time and wants to last the whole season without breaking down.

Franklin last played a Test for New Zealand in December 2006 and he hasn't appeared in one-dayers since the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies. Since then he missed the World Twenty20, the tour of South Africa, the home series against Bangladesh, and the home-and-away series against England. Franklin underwent surgery for a patella tendon injury in his right knee last November.

He has just returned to New Zealand after playing three weeks of Twenty20 games and one-day cricket for Australian Capital Territory. He had also played in the Emerging Players tour to Queensland in July after being named among New Zealand Cricket's [NZC] 20 contracted players in April.

"It's nice they're [NZC] behind me, but first things first," Franklin told the New Zealand Herald. "I'll be stoked if I can start the season on time and get through the whole summer. That would be a massive tick in the box for me."

Franklin, however, said he wasn't looking as far as a New Zealand call-up just yet. "If I'm feeling well with no worries then you never know but obviously a lot of time has passed since I played for New Zealand," he said. "The guys who've come in the past year have done well. It's all competition among one another and that can only be a good thing for New Zealand cricket."