New Zealand: Otago players dominate southern conference team (16 Oct 1997)

From The Press - October 16, 1997

Otago players dominate southern conference team

The Press

Otago provides nine players and Shell Trophy and Cup champion Canterbury only five to the southern conference cricket team for the new series which starts next month.

While Canterbury's Darrin Murray will skipper the 14-man squad, he leads a predominantly Dunedin-based team coached by Otago's Warren Lees.

The side is: Darrin Murray (captain), Craig Cumming, Llorne Howell, Warren Wisneski, Shane Bond (Canterbury); Robbie Lawson, Chris Gaffaney, Mark Richardson, Martyn Croy, Paul Wiseman, David Sewell, Nathan Morland, Aaron Gale, Robert Kennedy (Otago).

The fact that more Otago players were selected partly reflected the contribution that Canterbury made to the New Zealand team -- six players were selected in the side on Tuesday for the Australian tour. Other Canterbury players who would have made the group, Lee Germon and Mark Priest, are unavailable for the month-long event, but will still play for the province in the Shell series after Christmas.

The unlucky Canterbury candidate is Gary Stead who scored 405 runs at 40.50 in last season's Shell Trophy campaign. The side is heavy on opening batsmen with Murray, Cumming, Lawson and Gaffaney all filling the roles for their respective teams.

Howell and Mark Richardson are the only specialist middle-order batsmen before wicketkeeper Martyn Croy and the bowlers, Sewell and Wiseman, who have recent New Zealand team experience in Zimbabwe.

The team was selected by a New Zealand selector Ross Dykes, who was the convener, along with the Canterbury and Otago provincial conveners, Brian McKechnie and Stu McCullum.

Its first game is against Central at Wanganui in a one-day game on November 16 before a four-day fixture from November 17-20.

The Northern squad from the Auckland and Northern Districts associations will be named today and the Central group from Wellington and Central Districts will be named tomorrow.

Source :: The Canterbury Press (https://www.press.co.nz/)