Jah bless the Indian Premier League. I have no interest in the IPL, but the IPL has gifted us with an opportunity to provide meaningful international game time to a couple of our up and coming cricketers, against slightly weaker cricketing nations such as Ireland and Bangladesh. As our best cricketers play in the IPL and will return to the Blackcaps for the Champions Trophy - something we've been building towards for months (or have we??) - a tri-series in Ireland just felt like the perfect opportunity to unleash the future of kiwi cricket. 

That's especially the case when you ponder the lack of any Aotearoa 'A' tours and that any Aotearoa 'A' or Emerging team only plays sporadic tour games once or twice a summer. For whatever reason, New Zealand Cricket doesn't feel the need to offer that next wave the chance to gain that experience and for whatever reason, Gavin Larsen chooses to neglect the development of our young cricketers. 

Scott Kuggeleijn is the major winner, but he should have been one of many youngins' to get be named in this squad. The bowling stocks are weakened and the press release from NZC strangely made note of injuries to Ed Nuttall, Doug Bracewell and Ben Wheeler, so it's understandable that Hamish Bennett and Seth Rance were selected and their work on the domestic circuit warrants the call up. Bennett and Rance are veterans who know their work inside-out and the benefit in selecting them would be that you'd be able to rely on them to do a job for the Blackcaps; what's the benefit in selecting them to play 'friendlies' against Ireland and Bangladesh?

Bennett and Rance could definitely be in the mix for the Champions Trophy squad and they deserve to be, but Tim Southee, Trent Boult, Matt Henry, Lockie Ferguson, Mitchell McClenaghan and Adam Milne must all be ahead of Bennett and Rance at this stage. I'm not overly upset about the bowlers though as Bennett and Rance are damn good domestic bowlers and most of our young bowlers are injured or busy, I just struggle to see anything in their long-term Blackcaps futures, let alone their immediate Blackcaps future which is the Champions Trophy.

And why has it taken this long and this circumstance for Neil Wagner to get a crack at ODI cricket? I'd love Wagner to be a legit ODI cricketer and he's capable of that, but for so long he has been blatantly ignored. If Wagner has been ignored for that long, what's the point in selecting him to play against Ireland and Bangladesh? 

Given the unavailable list and my desire to continue to develop young kiwi cricketers into possible international cricketers, why not go with Anurag Verma and Logan van Beek (possibly due to him reppin' Netherlands)? Verma and Bennett both took 16 wickets in the Ford Trophy, Verma took his in just seven games while Bennett played nine games which is balanced by Verma being more expensive. Van Beek took 10 wickets in eight games @ 28 avg. 

Sure, Bennett and Rance have done more over a longer period of time but they will play limited roles even in this tri-series, let alone the Champions Trophy. So there's probably more benefit in getting Verma or van Beek to carry the drinks and bowl a few overs in an ODI that no one will remember.

Ish Sodhi and Mitchell Santner deserve to be given plenty of game time as a spin-duo in Test and ODI cricket (Sodhi's finished as a top-five wicket-taker in both Ford Trophy and Plunket Shield cricket). Jeetan Patel's experience and famed knowledge of English conditions work in his favour, but if our two best spinners are Sodhi and Santner, why not go with someone like Tim Johnston who was 2nd to Sodhi in wickets for spinners during the Ford Trophy.

If you view Patel as demanding a starting spot over Sodhi or Santner then you'll have a different perspective. Johnston's off-spin gave him 14 wickets @ 23.07avg, which puts Patel's Ford Trophy work in the shade with Patel taking 11 wickets @ 35.36 and while Johnston simply isn't in the mix for a Champions Trophy spot, he'd benefit from being around the group for a silly little tri-series.

Luke Ronchi has earned another Blackcaps spot and as Ronchi is our most experienced wicket-keeper/batsman, who will likely be given a Champions Trophy job because of that experience, that's somewhat all good. For me a tri-series against Ireland and Bangladesh, without the IPL blokes, would have been a nice chance to build Tom Blundell's experience up, heck why not give Tim Seifert, Glenn Phillips or Dane Cleaver a chance. 

Why not give the 'keeping gloves to skipper Tom Latham so he can try figure out how to bat and wicket-keep in ODI cricket, before the Champions Trophy. That would have opened a spot up for a young batsman like Sean Solia (77.66 FT avg), Will Young (45.77avg), Darryl Mitchell (59.16avg), Nick Kelly (49avg), Josh Clarkson (54.60avg), Matt Taylor (52.40avg) or Tom Bruce (37.28avg). All these young dudes had tremendous Ford Trophy campaigns although Young and Bruce are nearing the Blackcaps cusp and once again; the long-term benefit is ignored.

The proximity to the Champions Trophy does make things weird and I'm battling myself here as there's obviously a need for the likes of Latham, Ross Taylor, Neil Broom and Colin Munro game time ahead of the Champions Trophy. That's swiftly countered by the fact that key Blackcaps will head into the Champions Trophy straight from the IPL and we've kinda seen how that worked out before. 

We've got some super talented young cricketers in Aotearoa and if we haven't quite got there yet, we are entering a period of time where we'll have the best depth of my lifetime. There are many weird variables that don't make this a simple squad to pick, yet this squad is further evidence that there doesn't appear to be a clear plan in place to develop the plethora of young talent in Aotearoa. If there was a clear plan, there would at least be a comprehensive development tour schedule laid down, let alone the desire to pounce at opportunities like this with an eye on the future.

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