Kiwi cricket has been whipped into a minor frenzy over the past week with news that both Neil Wagner and Colin de Grandhomme will be relocating to Tauranga, thus shifting their cricketing talents to Northern Districts Knights. From the apparent disintegration of Otago Volts and then their rebuilding phase, to Tauranga now becoming the prized destination for cricket wives; there's plenty to unpack.

Although there is plenty to unpack, my main thought about regarding this news is how little impact this will have on Northern Districts Knights on the cricket pitch. In that sense, Knights angle to these signings is perhaps the most underwhelming aspect of it all and while it's fun for mainstream media to get giddy about possible Knights line ups, featuring an abundance of Blackcaps, it's kinda pointless. 

As Aotearoa's numero tahi place for domestic cricket funk, I'm more concerned with the actual nuts and bolts of this situation, less concerned with fantasy. In signing Wagner and de Grandhomme, ND have added two current Blackcaps to their list of Kane Williamson, Tim Southee, Trent Boult, Mitchell Santner, BJ Watling and Ish Sodhi. Corey Anderson also won a NZC contract again, although he made a brief comeback from injury last summer and Tim Seifert could also be considered a Blackcap as he's already made his T20 debut and Seifert's Blackcaps stocks will only rise over the next 12 months.

For a domestic cricket scribe like myself, that's cool and all but there is little in having so many Blackcaps that helps the Knights win cricket games. 

That's not because those Blackcaps suck, it's solely because they don't play for the Knights. 

Domestic cricket is weird in the sense that you don't really want certified Blackcaps, if you want to win Plunket Shield or Ford Trophy championships. Obviously having Blackcaps around your organisation is lovely and helps build a strong, professional culture, plus there are likely to be many business benefits to having Blackcaps in your organisation; ND Knights are never going to say 'nah, no more Blackcaps'.

But in terms of winning cricket games, you want exceptional talent that will play consistently for your team. Take Central Districts Stags for example, who are Plunket Shield champions and have in my opinion, the most talented cricket team in domestic cricket, featuring guys who are all on the fringes of the Blackcaps; Will Young, Tom Bruce, Ben Wheeler, Ajaz Patel, Dane Cleaver, Doug Bracewell, Greg Hay, Adam Milne, Seth Rance, George Worker.

Throw in Jesse Ryder - who I reckon is third behind Williamson and Ross Taylor as Aotearoa's most talented batsmen - and you have a nek level talent who is available all season long. 
Wellington were bloody good this year, because they have top-tier talent available all season. Tom Blundell is a fringe Blackcap himself, while Michael Papps, Luke Woodcock, Hamish Bennett, Logan van Beek and Jeetan Patel were among the Plunket Shield's best performers.

Wellington also just happen to have a bloke named Devon Conway who averages over 40 in First-Class and List-A cricket, after playing the bulk of his 90 FC games and 59 LA games in South Africa; depending on eligibility, he'll get into the Blackcaps mixer soon enough, but he offers Wellington value because he plays games for them, consistently.

Auckland wound up having a decent season in Plunket Shield and Ford Trophy, based around Jeet Raval who was barely away on Blackcaps duty and fringe Blackcaps Lockie Ferguson, Glenn Phillips and Mark Chapman. Imagine coming up against Auckland a few years ago, when they had de Grandhomme, Raval, Ferguson and Colin Munro playing every week.

To win in domestic cricket, you want talent that is good enough for international cricket but isn't playing international cricket. 

ND have also benefited from that as Ish Sodhi has been on the Blackcaps yo-yo over the past three years. Without consistent international cricket, Sodhi has spent a lot of time playing for ND in Plunket Shield and Ford Trophy, where he's used his international-calibre talents to help ND win.

Here are Sodhi's averages in the past three seasons...

2017/18: 13.92 (PS), 25.57 (FT).
2016/17: 25.92 (PS), 19.42 (FT).
2015/16: 29.22 (PS), 41.66 (FT).

The funniest thing about all of this, especially with the idea of pondering what ND would look like with all their Blackcaps, is that ND lost to Auckland on November 17 last year, with all their Blackcaps. ND lost by 8 wickets, with a team of; Flynn, Watling, Williamson, Santner, Seifert, Devcich, Kuggeleijn, Southee, Sodhi, Boult, Baker.

The best performer in the first innings was Auckland's Ben Lister who took 5w on debut, including Watling and Williamson. Then Michael Guptill-Bunce hit the highest score of the game with 62 in the same innings that Scott Kuggeleijn took 5w - ND's best bowler in this game. It was Auckland's Matt McEwan who took the most wickets in an innings of this game, with his 6w in the second innings, which came after McEwan hit 55, batting #9 and no ND batsman could do better than that in the game.

This was the only Plunket Shield game played last season by Williamson, Southee, Boult and Santner. I don't expect those four, or Sodhi and maybe Seifert to play much domestic cricket this summer as they should feature regularly for the Blackcaps across all formats.

ND were graced with the presence of Watling for much of the season thanks to the lack of Test cricket and depending Aotearoa's Test schedule this summer, they may get good value out of Watling and Wagner as they are viewed as Test-only players. Even then, mainstream media who don't pay any attention to the nuts and bolts of domestic cricket would overlook the fact that neither Wagner nor Watling were overly dominant in domestic cricket last summer, not what you'd expect from Test cricketers.

(Wagner was 17th in Plunket Shield wickets and that only one bowler ahead of him in wickets, had a higher average; meaning that you could make a serious case that Wagner was the 17th best bowler in Plunket Shield. Watling was the second-worst-performing wicket-keeper/batsman in Plunket Shield cricket last summer. Only Tom Blundell had fewer runs and a lower average than Watling in Plunket Shield)

This discussion needs to centre on and celebrate ND's fantastic development pathways that consistently churn out domestic cricketers, who step up to domestic level. Instead of wandering off into a world where all their Blackcaps are present, I'm realistic and wander down the path where the ND cricketers who do keep the Knights as a top-tier domestic team across all formats, regardless of which Blackcaps come and go.

Former Blackcaps such as Daniel Flynn, Dean Brownlie, Brent Arnel and Antony Devcich play a major role in that. However, ND have the likes of Daryl Mitchell, Nick Kelly, Scott Kuggeleijn, Bharat Popli, Joel Baker, Henry Cooper, Zak Gibson, Brett Randell, Brett Hampton, Josef Walker and Blair Pocock who have either been able to suss out domestic cricket in recent years, thus entering prime years, or have been given recent opportunities.

Just ask Tim Seifert about those opportunities, because Seifert, like those cricketers mentioned above, get their opportunities via the vacant spots left by Blackcaps. ND have genuinely needed to have two wicket-keepers ready to go at any time because of Watling being a Blackcap and they simply rolled out another Blackcaps wicket-keeper. Then when Watling and Seifert are unavailable, ND churn out another wicket-keeper/batsman from their production line in Peter Bocock.

The fact that ND remain competitive regardless of the coming and goings of their Blackcaps is a testament to their development programs, which is even more impressive given their catchment area stretches from Tauranga up to Whangarei. ND cricket will undoubtedly benefit from the arrivals of de Grandhomme and Wagner in a variety of ways, yet the direct impact they and the rest of their Blackcaps have on winning cricket games will be minimal.

With that in mind, I'm far more concerned with how guys like Mitchell, Kelly, Cooper, Popli and Kuggeleijn develop next season, or what new gem the Knights unearth, instead of a Blackcaps Knights fantasy.

Hit an ad to support Domestic Cricket Daily.

Or jump on Patreon and support the Niche Cache directly, we look after the Patron homies.

Peace and love 27.