Otago looking to specialist Cup captain to fire team up

New Otago coach Denis Aberhart will be hoping that the arrival of Lee Germon will charge up the blue and gold Volts for tomorrow's Shell Cup match against Central Districts at Victoria Park.

Apart from signs of good batting from Matt Horne and Simon Forde and a fine spell of bowling from David Sewell, all former internationals, Otago was really lifeless in the crushing nine-wicket Shell Trophy loss to CD.

Germon is not playing in the trophy series this summer but flies into Wanganui today to lead the Volts in the one-dayer tomorrow, taking over the captaincy from trophy series skipper Horne.

The Germon - Aberhart combination worked wonders when they masterminded Canterbury to five provincial titles in the mid-1990s.

After the dismal start to the trophy season Otago will be hoping that the old Germon - Aberhart magic formula returns tomorrow on a new Victoria Park wicket which groundsman Kevin Coombe predicts will be faster than the trophy wicket.

Otago has dropped Sewell and James McMillan from the mid-week team and brought in 31-year-old Aberhart and all-rounder Ian Billcliff with trophy match 12th man Carl O'Dowda also in the equasion.

In contrast to the woes of Aberhart, Central coach Dipak Patel was on top of the world after his side's resounding trophy win which was really built on the back of the history making 124 by Leicestershire professional Ben Smith, the highest maiden century by a CD player on his first-class debut in New Zealand.

Patel also had praise for his basically new-look bowling attack -- "To take 20 wickets as cheaply as they have done is a credit to all four of them."

Manawatu's Michael Mason, the bowling hero in the Otago second innings with a career best of 5-44, is to have a bowling test today to determine whether he plays in the cup match tomorrow.

He had an off-season operation to remove a cyst which was causing a shoulder problem and Patel considers the pace bowler is around 85 per cent fully fit.

Patel has dropped wicket-keeper Peter McGlashan and former Northland medium fast bowler Ewan Thompson for the cup match with Colombo-born medium pacer Sanjeewa Silva and Nelson's Andrew Schwass, also a medium pacer, added to the 12-man squad. Mark Douglas will keep wickets.

The teams for the 12 noon start match are -

Central Districts: Jacob Oram (captain), Joseph Hill, David Kelly, Ben Smith, Mark Douglas, Greg Loveridge, Greg Todd, Gareth West, Michael Mason, Hadyn Morgan, Sanjeewa Silva, Andrew Schwass.

Otago: Lee Germon (captain), Matt Horne, Martin Croy, Craig Cumming, Simon Forde, Chris Gaffaney, Andrew Hore, Craig Pryor, Nathan McCullum, Warren McSkimming, Carl O'Dowda, Ian Billciliff.

Unfortunately the weather forecast is not good with rain predicted for tonight and showers tomorrow.