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Our six domestic cricket associations dropped their first round on player contracts yesterday and there's nothing like player movement to spice things up. The first contract round has associations offering contracts to 9-14 players, with 15 players to be officially contracted come the second round later in July. This means that an association can name 10 players and another association can name 14, leaving 'X' number of contracts left to be offered in the second round.

We'll roll through the various contract lists starting with Auckland Aces, Northern Districts Knights and Central Districts Stags. It'd be boring to go up to my neck in each contract list as there's not a whole of funk in players who are going around another time with the team they've played for over the past few years, instead I'll zone in on names that caught my eye from the respective lists.

Auckland Aces

Mathew McEwan

Many players that I highlight will fall under the 'change of scenery' umbrella; players who move teams for a change of scenery, to reinvigorate their cricket senses. Mathew McEwan is one of those players and the Cantabrian has been a low key seamer that I've kept tabs on in past seasons as he's done a decent job when given an opportunity for Wellington. He's got a career First-Class average of 29.96 and was impressive last season, taking 19 wickets in six games @ 26.73avg/3.14rpo, which almost had him as good as Seth Rance.

McEwan will offer nice balance in an attack that will also feature Lockie Ferguson and he'll likely be competing with Raja Sandhu in the seam attack. Auckland named 13 players, so they have two more contracts to offer and there should be another seamer in there as depth to support Ferguson, McEwan, Sandhu and Donovan Grobbelaar. There's massive potential for McEwan to seal consistent game time and based on what he's done previously, he should impress with consistent opportunities.

Aniket Parikh

Offering a different spinning option to Tarun Nethula will be 20-year-old Aniket Parikh, an off-spinner who took 2/101 @ 3.60rpo in his only Plunket Shield outing to date. Nethula could be around for as long as he wants to be, although Auckland need to bring in a spinner to work with Nethula and Parikh seems to be the kid they are putting their faith in. Given that, it'll be interesting to see how much game time Parikh gets and whether he features alongside Nethula, or if he starts out of the mix with Nethula operating as the lone spinner.

Parikh was a member of the famed Aotearoa Under 19 team that finished 12th at the last World Cup (also featuring Glenn Phillips, Josh Clarkson, Nathan Smith and Zak Gibson). Parikh took 5 wickets in that World Cup which wasn't enough to put him in the top-41 wicket-takers and Wellington's Rachin Ravindra, who opened the batting and bowled left-arm spin, took 7 wickets @ 29.85avg/5.72rpo. Otago seamer Nathan Smith was the best kiwi bowler at that World Cup (7 wickets @26.28avg/4.5rpo).

Make of Parikh's previous work, what you will. He's the young spinner that Auckland are banking their future on.

Contracted 1st XI (excluding players not named in first round)

Michael Guptill-Bunce, Glenn Phillips, Rob O'Donnell, Sean Solia, Mark Chapman, Ben Horne (wk), Donovan Grobbelaar, Tarun Nethula, Raja Sandhu, Matt McEwan, Lockie Ferguson

Remaining: Michael Barry, Aniket Parikh.

Northern Districts Knights

Brent Arnel

BA returns from Wellington and this is funky because it's reasonably clear to see the role that Arnel will play as ND have a super young bowling attack. Arnel, Scott Kuggeleijn and James Baker will guide Zak Gibson, Brett Hampton and Brett Randell through their work and while we could expect Arnel to lead the ND attack in Plunket Shield cricket, I reckon he'll slide back in limited overs cricket to give the youngsters their chances.

Best case scenario is that the youngsters are just better than Arnel and Arnel doesn't have to do too much work, Arnel's still a bloody good bowler though; (FC) 30 wickets in 8 games @ 21.40avg/2.22rpo. Those youngsters are going to have to prove that they deserve to be selected over Arnel first and foremost, which is a fantastic spot for ND to be in as they'll only enjoy the fruits of competition.

It's hard not to salute ND as they not only have a cluster of Blackcaps which features Tim Southee and Trent Boult, they have prospects who benefit from those Blackcaps contracts. Hampton, Randell and Gibson will be competing for one or two spots this season and will cover the absence of the Blackcaps, Arnel is crucial in all of that as he's the OG.

Joe Walker

That same vibe can be applied here as Ish Sodhi and Mitchell Santner are likely to be on Blackcaps duty for much of the summer, so ND need a spinner to cover them. Joe Walker is that lad and his off-spin should become a lot more prominent this season, especially if ND don't offer Jono Boult their remaining contract - they've named 14, so one left.

Walker has 22 wickets in 16 FC games @ 56.18avg/3.4rpo and he's also waltzing around with a FC half-century to his name as well. He took a 5-for in ND's penultimate game of the season last summer and finished with 7 wickets in that game, keep in mind it was on a Mount Maunganui pitch that also gave Sodhi 5 wickets in that game as well, plus Wellington's leggy Peter Younghusband took a 5-for.

We could see Walker bat as high as No.6 if the stars align this season, he's most likely to slide in behind Scott Kuggeleijn though and bat No.8.

Contracted 1st XI (excluding players not named in first round)

Dean Brownlie, Daniel Flynn, Bharat Popli, Daryl Mitchell, Tim Seifert (wk), Anton Devcich, Scott Kuggeileijn, Joe Walker, James Baker, Brent Arnel.

Remaining: Zak Gibson, Brett Randell, Brett Hampton.

Central Districts Stags

I thought ND had a settled squad and then I took a geeze at this CD squad that has zero funk and that's fantastic, even though I love the Machine Gun Funk. CD have dished out 13 contracts, so there could be some intrigue in who gets those remaining two contracts as they are likely to go to up and coming prospects, perhaps Navin Patel will be in line for one.

What CD's squad does have is immense Blackcaps potential and that's the major point I'll focus on. Doug Bracewell has got a contract - he'd only not get one if CD were hating on his off-field stuff but they are rightfully sticking by him - and Bracewell must be eager to put his best foot forward this summer after falling down the seaming pecking order.

Perhaps if Bracewell didn't slide out of contention, he would have been in that weird Blackcaps squad for the Ireland tri-series, instead of say; Seth Rance?

Just a funky situation and Bracewell is joined by Ben Wheeler in eyeing up some Blackcaps action if they can dominate the domestic circuit. Wheeler demanded Blackcaps ponderings with his T20 work, ideally we'll see him get through the Plunket Shield workload and it's going to be great for kiwi cricket if these two can bolster Aotearoa's bowling Stable.

Then you have Tom Bruce and William Young with the bat, I like pointing out Dane Cleaver as well. Cleaver is a wicket-keeper/batsmen who rarely gets mentioned outside of the Niche Cache as a potential Aotearoa wk/bat and last season he averaged 39.46 in FC cricket, along with a FC career average of 37.55. He's only 25yrs and should be viewed as Tom Blundell's competition for a future Test spot.

Bruce and Young are the best batting prospects in Aotearoa, done. Both averaged over 40 last season in FC cricket and both have FC career averages over 40. You don't really need to know much more than that and they'll be the two batsman who demand my attention this summer.

Contracted 1st XI (excluding players not named in first round)

Ben Smith, Greg Hay, Jesse Ryder, Will Young, Tom Bruce, Dane Cleaver, Doug Bracewell, Ben Wheeler, Blair Tickner, Seth Rance, Ajaz Patel.

Remaining: Ryan McCone, Josh Clarkson.

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