With each domestic cricket preview, I'll make a wee video to go with it for Patreon. We''ll be getting knee deep in domestic cricket this summer and there will be some bonus, exclusive stuff on Patreon as well. All you gotta do is sign up for $1 a month and tu meke.

Here's the link for the Auckland Aces preview video.

One of the mainstream media's favourite hobbies in recent years has been A) hating on Auckland's various rugby teams and B) trying to suss out what's going so horribly wrong in Auckland in rugby. The similarities between Auckland's rugby (Blues and NPC) and Auckland Aces cricket are strong and what these media folk overlook when pondering - they spend far too much energy pondering about Auckland stuff - is the basic cycle of sport.

Auckland's rugby is young and is making moves forward, which takes time. Think about all those games the Blues lost this season when they were perhaps in positions to win and well, that's exactly what I'd expect from a team that is building experience at this level, building experience together. Right now, Auckland Aces have the youngest, least experience group in domestic cricket and like their rugby counterparts, that young talent is rather impressive; just give them time to breathe as they learn how to compete against grizzly veterans.

Other domestic cricket teams are also rather young, but Canterbury for example had a trio of veterans who were always around. Now with Peter Fulton retired it's the job of Todd Astle and Andrew Ellis to guide their younger players, with Astle and Ellis not playing Blackcaps cricket they are with their lads every step of the way. Canterbury are also similar to Central Districts in that they have ooze youth, it's experienced youth though that has been doing a job at this level for a number of years.

Auckland have top-end talent that will be busy with the Blackcaps this summer and have lost their grizzly veteran Rob Nicol, leaving a cluster of young players of which most are approaching their second full season of domestic cricket. This makes them interesting and enticing to follow, just don't expect them to be super successful or get your undies in a twist if Auckland ain't doing as well as the good ol' days. In saying that, if Auckland are dominant, then their young players have stood up and that will be epic.

In terms of individuals who tickle my domestic tastebuds, Jeet Raval leads the pack. This is largely thanks to the lack of Test cricket for the Blackcaps, meaning that Raval will be available for Auckland a lot this summer and has an opportunity to fill the void left by Nicol. Raval will not only be able to offer a veteran presence around the team, he'll be asked to lead with his piece of willow and score runs at the top of the order.

Raval has had a solid start to his Test career and should be in a position to dominate even further at First-Class level. He averages 44.81 in Test cricket, 43.30 in FC cricket and combined with the leadership opportunity available to Raval with the Aces, I'm intrigued by how Raval steps up to the plate.

In a similar vein is Lockie Ferguson, who has had a taste of higher honours and would have learned an encyclopedia worth of cricketing funk over the past 12 months. I expect Ferguson to play plenty of Plunket Shield cricket as it's been interesting to see Adam Milne enjoy a free ride back into the Blackcaps set up, thus pushing Ferguson back down the pecking order. Well, in ODI cricket anyway and what has been funky to observe during Ferguson's ascension has been the perception around him being as a limited overs bowler.

Ferguson's best work comes in FC cricket where he averages 25.39, compared to a List-A average of 30.60 and T20 average of 40.53. Same goes with his bowling economy, even when factoring the different styles of the different formats; 3.26rpo (FC), 6rpo (LA), 8.10rpo (T20). His work in FC cricket stands out emphatically, yet the Blackcaps have pigeon-holed Ferguson in his two worse formats. With that in mind, Ferguson has an ODI bowling average of 50.87 and 6.46rpo, not flattering, but more a sign of silly selection decisions.

Another block-busting Plunket Shield campaign could see Ferguson start to really send a message through to the silly selectors about his Test credentials. He's routinely shown that his body can handle it and bowled 229.4 overs last season in PS cricket (30 wickets @ 22.03avg/2.87rpo), as well as routinely showing that he takes wickets. Auckland are also light in the seam department and Ferguson will be the leader of the attack, maintaining Auckland's lethal combo of Ferguson's pace and Tarun Nethula's leggies.

Two younger lads that I'm most interested in are Mark Chapman and Ben Horne. Horne is a wicket-keeper who bats down the order and he'll maintain the top w-k spot ahead of Glenn Phillips - where Phillips bats in PS will be a funky yarn. Making his FC debut earlier this year, Horne chipped in with lower-order runs fairly regularly and his funky stroke-play was also nicely suited to Super Smash cricket. Horne averaged 43.80 in FC and 50.50 in T20, but the difference in his strike-rates suggests that he's not a one-trick homie as his 177.19sr in T20 cricket dropped down to 59.34 in PS #Perfect.

Aotearoa's w-k stocks are deep and Horne is the next lad who will put his name into that mixer. He's played less than seven games in each format so he's not quite in the mixer just yet, but this season could start some conversations about Horne's future in that w-k cluster. Think about how fast Tim Seifert has climbed to perhaps be at the top of the w-k pile and this is a incredibly fluid situation that could feature Horne come season's end.

Horne and Chapman are both 23-years-old, yet Chapman already has an ODI hundred for Hong Kong and struts around with a List-A average of 47.42. His FC average is a bit lower (31.15) and I'm intrigued by Chapman's prospects with more PS game time this summer. A solid season last summer saw Chapman average 33.88 and while you can bank on Chapman being a certainty in limited overs stuff, I'm keen to see Chapman lock down a No.4 or 5 spot in Auckland's PS batting order.

Of the top-10 PS run-scorers last season, only Colin Munro and Anarau Kitchen had higher strike-rates than Chapman's 68.53 and Chapman's FC strike-rate is 72.45. He can bat, he's got all the shots and all the talent to forge an impressive career out of this cricket ting. How Chapman deals with the consistency required to make a mark on the PS will be of serious interest and as he develops the ability to contribute in most games, runs will flow.

Peace and love 27.

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