Domestic cricket contracts have been flying across Aotearoa via carrier kea over the past few weeks as the six major cricket gatherers sorted out their list of players for the 2020/21 cricket season. This time around, everything was fairly meh as there was little movement from squad to squad and instead, there was a lot of promotion from within as the influx of cricketers into the semi-pro realm continues.

Otago Volts made another low key addition that is nicely aligned with their work in recruiting Nick Kelly, Dale Phillips and Dean Foxcroft to the deep south last winter, adding Central Districts Stags seamer Jarrod McKay to their roster. McKay made his Plunket Shield debut last summer and only played the one game, snaring a wicket in either innings and he'll join former Stags Foxcroft and Mitch Renwick in recently moving south.

The only notable recruit joining Canterbury is Daryl Mitchell, fresh off breaking through into the Blackcaps Test mix and now leaving Northern Districts Knights to take up a lead all-rounder gig with the Cantabs. Having Mitchell in the middle-order provides Canterbury with the seaming all-rounder style that Andrew Ellis held down for so long and package that with the spinning all-rounder in Cole McConchie for an intriguing aspect of their 1st 11; both Mitchell and McConhie can bat in the top-six and be used as second tier bowling options behind the lead seamers/spinner.

For Mitchell, this move appears to be primarily family related. It does present Mitchell with an interesting juncture as he earned his way to the Blackcaps fringes while with the Knights and I'd image that he is now keen to push forward, continue to impress and hit the nek level. This will be a fascinating move to look back on after the coming season as Mitchell will either be deeper in the Blackcaps mix, or with all sort of Blackcaps competition, Mitchell may hit a plateau and fall away; Canterbury have all the tools to ensure that it's the former that occurs.

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Wellington Firebirds have snared Finn Allen from Auckland and this is another fascinating move as Allen appears to be on the cusp of making waves. Ripples have already been felt as Allen has scored runs for various Aotearoa 11 teams and everyone loves seeing a scorecard where a relatively unknown scores runs against international bowers. That hasn't resulted in any major domestic cricket things though and Allen has understandably struggled for game time in an Auckland Aces team that is often stacked with talent.

Allen's got a First-Class average of 25.25 and a List-A average of 20, neither of which is 'tell a friend' worthy. Wellington have found a niche in providing opportunities for specific cricketers with Michael Bracewell, Hamish Bennett and Jimmy Neesham both enjoying the move to the capital, the Firebirds also laid the platform for Devon Conway's abundance of runs and there is perhaps the funkiest crop of young cricketers at the Firebirds in Aotearoa led by Rachin Ravindra and Ben Sears.

(Devon Conway reckoned Sears is one of the fastest bowlers in Aotearoa).

Professional cricketer, Devon Conway shares his journey from a young ambitious cricketer starting out in South Africa to the senior professional on the brink...

A little less intriguing to Mitchell's move, Allen's first season with Wellington will depend a lot on the availability of Tom Blundell, Conway and Neesham. With those three in the team, Allen's going to struggle to get a crack, but if one of those three is away then Allen could settle into some game time. This is all about playing time for Allen.

Central Districts Stags and Auckland Aces both re-upped with their steady squads, neither making any big moves to add players. Jeet Raval's departure from Auckland to Northern Districts Knights is the only major move from the Knights and while I'd put this behind Mitchell's move to Canterbury in the intrigue stakes, Raval's move to ND is right behind Mitchell's move.

Why would Raval leave Auckland?

Auckland have no shortage of batsmen, especially now that Colin Munro has drifted out of Blackcaps ODI stuff. Despite being fabulous in the Ford Trophy in his last three seasons (39.50avg, 43.14avg and 45.50avg), Raval may struggled to get into the Aces white ball teams and given that record, as well as slipping out of his Blackcaps Test opening spot, I reckon Raval wants to be playing all formats.

Aaditya and Kadambari from Namaste New Zealand chat with Blackcaps cricketer Jeet Raval. Namaste New Zealand was made with help from NZ On Air.

A move from Auckland to ND involves minimal life change and Raval can freshen up with a different group at a low key crucial stage of his career, without having to uproot life for he and his family. At the Knights, the combination of Raval and Henry Cooper is going to command my attention as Cooper's already jacked up a FC average of 39.11 and if these two are opening the innings for the Knights in Plunket Shield cricket, I'll be observing.

The Knights are in a wee spot of intrigue themselves as we all know about their plethora of Blackcaps, yet that hasn't helped them in domestic cricket as they finished 6th (last) in the Plunket Shield and Super Smash and 4th in the Ford Trophy. They've re-jigged their coaching staff with Graeme Aldridge coming in, appearing to replace both John Bracewell and Gareth Hopkins (T20).

Between Raval, Dean Brownlie Cooper, Tim Seifert, Joe Carter and the emerging Katene Clarke, the Knights have a bunch of batsmen who are likely to be playing a lot of cricket for the Knights this summer; not quite established Blackcaps, all pretty damn good though. I wouldn't be surprised if the change of scenery suits Raval perfectly, along with Raval stepping up in leadership when required.

When required ... when the Blackcaps are away. Depending on the scheduling of domestic and Blackcaps cricket, Raval adds another heavy name to a possible 1st 11 for the Knights if the stars align: Jeet Raval, Henry Cooper, Kane Williamson, Mitchell Santner, Tim Seifert, BJ Watling, Colin de Grandhomme, Tim Southee, Ish Sodhi, Neil Wager, Trent Boult.

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