McIntosh a message to New Zealand
New Zealand have rung in several changes for the their two-Test series against West Indies following an embarrassing 2-0 loss in Australia
Nishi Narayanan
25-Feb-2013
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New Zealand have rung in several changes for the their two-Test series against West Indies following an embarrassing 2-0 loss in Australia. Bowlers Tim Southee and Chris Martin have made way for James Franklin and Mark Gillespie and Tim McIntosh replaces opener Aaron Redmond for the series which will be new coach Andy Moles' first one in charge after John Bracewell five-year term came to an end.
In the New Zealand Herald Mark Richardson believes McIntosh will have an advantage making his debut at 29.
The advantage of making one's debut a little later in life, and I speak from experience here, is you are most likely to be pretty set in your ways. You know your game by that stage and have a sound set of basics you know work for you. You would have experienced form fluctuations and should be able to minimise the troughs by referring to the past. You know you are about to take your game to the next level but understand that it is the only game you have and just have to rely on it.
In the same paper, Paul Lewis reviews John Bracewell's tenure as New Zealand coach and writes that his biggest failure was not to instill in his team the same fighting qualities he possessed as a player.
Craig McMillan is surprised at Southee's absence and wonders what sort of a message it will send to the young player. He also disagrees with the selection of McIntosh in his Sunday News column.
I would still have gone with Matthew Bell for his experience over Tim McIntosh coming in for Aaron Redmond. Aaron was probably our best test performer in Adelaide, so many might consider him unlucky. But after seven tests I'm not convinced he's got the technique to be a long-term test opener.
The Waikato Times' Ian Anderson has devised a 12-step recovery programme for New Zealand which includes asking coach Andy Moles to solve the team's inability to get big scores, find a bowler to spearhead the attack and find players who have shown they are willing to fight hard enough to win Tests.
In the Sunday Star Times Richard Boock writes that though Bracewell didn't have the results to show, no one could doubt his commitment.
But his colleague John Dybvig disagrees. In the same paper, Dybvig criticises Bracewell's methods and writes that filling out forms, evaluating your peers and touchy-feely discussions about how your inner self is doing will not erase the one simple fact about sport: hard work and fundamentals never die.
What the Black Caps need is Mark Richardson. The other night on The Crowd Goes Wild Richardson poured withering scorn on the batting efforts of the Black Caps in their second test against Australia ... he actually used the medium (pictures) to explain several points on batting technique he showed what they did correctly and then showed footage of incredibly crap technique (his words) and plainly shouted with passion that it wasn't good enough because it was "batting 101" and that the Black Caps were in reality just slack.
Nishi Narayanan is a staff writer at ESPNcricinfo