After 12 months or so of confusing selections and confidence-destroying yo-yo antics, this Blackcaps Champions Trophy squad is a line in the sand moment. Gavin Larsen and Mike Hesson dropped their squad for the Champions Trophy yesterday and I'd like to genuinely put this out into the atmosphere; Champions Trophy results should dictate the future of Larsen and Hesson as leaders of Aotearoa cricket.

You know the drill and that's the whole problem here. All summer long we debated weird selection after weird selection and we highlighted the endless contradictions coming from these two, so it's only right that they cap it all off with a Champions Trophy squad that completely ignores the decisions made by these two throughout the summer.

Of course, this could all go in an immensely positive way and the Blackcaps could make the final, or win the Champions Trophy. Hence, this is a line in the sand moment. If that were to happen and the Blackcaps enjoyed success at the Champions Trophy, then Larsen and Hesson have every right to take the Blackcaps forward into a very positive era of kiwi cricket. They would have earned that right via success at a major tournament.

What would Champions Trophy success look like? If the Blackcaps make the semi-finals and are knocked out in the semi-finals, I'll happily chill on sippin' hateraide until they throw up some more confusing decisions.

Anything less than making the semi-finals and given what preceded the Champions Trophy, there's absolutely no reason why Larsen and Hesson should keep their jobs.

Most of the attention has centred around Luke Ronchi and Tom Latham being named as wicket-keeper/batsmen. This is a very easy target and that's why every kiwi punter can poke holes in this selection (things smell much funkier though when you look deeper into this squad), so we'll start with the easy target.

We know Ronchi has done nothing to deserve a spot and Latham didn't quite fill us with confidence when he was given the gloves as an opening batsman. At this stage, Larsen and Hesson (conveniently shortened to 'Lesson' for stylistic purposes from here on) had no other choice because they backed themselves into this corner. We all knew the CT was coming so you'd assume Lesson knew as well, so it would make sense for a wicket-keeper/batsman to be given the job over the summer to prepare for this major tournament.

I quite like the idea of Latham as an opener/wk as this offers some funky options down the order. Despite playing six ODI games (three vs Aus, three vs Bang) in December, Latham was only given the opener/wk job at the end of January and he didn't score enough runs to hold down his place in the team. Lesson could have given Latham the whole summer to really suss out that particular job, instead they threw him the job and took an ODI batsman who was merely trying to figure out how to score ODI runs and complicated his job even further.

Tom Blundell appeared to be the next cab off the rank and this would have been a fantastic opportunity to bleed Blundell into the Blackcaps over the summer against a nice mix of tough opposition (Aus/SA) and Bangladesh, in familiar conditions. Instead, Lesson picked Blundell for one T20 game and Blundell was not sighted again for the Blackcaps over the summer. Blundell didn't even get to swing the bat in that lone T20 appearance, he didn't even get to show Lesson what he could do and he was subsequently kicked to the curb.

Averaging just 25.50 in the Ford Trophy, Blundell didn't exactly demand a promotion but dig deeper and you'll see that Blundell hit 31 off 16 balls batting at No.3 in the Ford Trophy final. Or that Blundell hit 28, 24, 23, 21 and 31 in his last five Ford Trophy games, or that Blundell finished the Plunket Shield with three half-centuries and a century in his last five Plunket Shield games.

That overlooks the fact that there was clearly zero planning around Blundell's development though. Blundell could have simply been told that he'd be given a crack in the ODI team for the trip to Australia, followed by Bangladesh and that it would take some terrible form for him to lose that spot; 'we think you could be an option at the Champions Trophy and we're going to give you time to settle in and make your case'.

We all love BJ Watling and this has nothing to do with Watling himself, but remember that Watling was given first crack at that ODI wk spot on the Australian leg of the Chappell-Hadlee series. This is perhaps the biggest red flag of a lack of any sort of planning for the Champions Trophy because Watling had only played two ODIs in India since his last ODI outing way back in February 2013, then he was selected to tour the big, bad Aussies.

I certainly wouldn't be against Watling being used as an opening bat/wk in ODI cricket and we've kinda overlooked Watling despite him averaging 37.92 in List-A cricket. Don't forget that numerous players in this Champions Trophy squad have been selected on their IPL form (despite those conditions being completely different to English conditions) and Watling averaged 53 in the Super Smash, striking at 113.73sr.

This is only incredibly strange because Watling was given first crack, but was never given another crack. Anyone could tell you that Watling was going to struggle to smack the ball around down the order in Australia where the fields are considerably bigger than those in Aotearoa and instead of giving Watling 'first crack' this was nothing more than setting Watling up for failure.

In selecting Watling for three ODIs against Australian, Lesson showed that they had no plan here. Latham was given his opportunity far too late, Blundell was barely given an opportunity and Ronchi did absolutely nothing with his opportunity. Four blokes shouldn't have even been given these opportunities and it could have simply been a case of giving 'plan A' an early and prolonged chance, then resorting to 'plan B' if desperately required.

Lesson had no plan and are now left with Ronchi who has high-score of 37* in 30 innings since February 3, 2015 and Latham who was given a new job only a matter of games out from a major tournament.

Planning for a major tournament? I'll let you decide.

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