During the week it was reported that Wellington Firebirds had snapped up Nathan Smith from Otago Volts for the upcoming summer. Of course we have to wait until the domestic cricket contracts are officially announced and there may be deeper recruitment funk to ponder, yet the quality and consistency of Wellington's recruitment perked up my kiwi cricket antenna.

Smith is merely the latest player to link up with Wellington cricket over the last five years and in reporting this, Otago Daily Times relayed Smith's reasoning behind this decision...

"But the main reasons I had for the move is I’ll get to work with the specialist bowling coach that they have. They have just signed Iain O’Brien and they’ve got Hamish Bennett there, who I’m looking forward to working with immensely.
"They’ve got about five other Black Caps there ... and they’ve just signed a specialist batting coach, so they have a lot of resources.
"I saw that as an extremely exciting opportunity."
"Just the fact I’ll get six more weeks on grass leading into the season, and it is just a great opportunity for me to focus on my own game in a real strong winning culture."

Coach Rob Walter's move from Otago to Central Districts Stags was also mentioned as being a factor. In isolation, these factors amount to a compelling case for a change in scenery. Without getting too deep into the mangroves here, Wellington cricket has steadily added solid domestic pieces to their squad and the key thing here is that most of these lads are in the middle or latter stages of their cricketing journeys.

On the fringes of the mangroves are Scott Kuggeleijn and Craig Cachopa, who made their First Class debuts for Wellington despite being from Northern Districts and Auckland respectively. These two were among the best cricketers of their age group and burst on to the circuit back in late 2011, playing in a Wellington team made up of hearty Wellington troopers. Since then, Wellington appears to have been rather specific in their recruitment moves...

Ahead of the 2016/17 season, Wellington recruited Hamish Bennett to move up from Canterbury.

In 2017 Wellington brought Michael Bracewell up from Otago and Logan van Beek north from Canterbury.

In 2018 Wellington snared Jimmy Neesham from Otago

Then Wellington diverted slightly in grabbing Finn Allen from Auckland last year.

Bennett had made his FC debut in 2005. Neesham and van Beek made their debuts in 2010, Bracewell wasn't far behind in 2011. These four seem to fall into the bucket of giving Wellington greater experience as they bid farewell to all of those hearty Wellington troopers; Mark Gillespie, Michael Papps, Luke Woodcock, Michael Pollard, James Franklin, Grant Elliott, Jeetan Patel etc.

With Smith making his FC debut in 2016, he's more aligned with the solid experience group than he is with Allen as one of the best prospects in Aotearoa. While Smith hasn't quite made Blackcaps waves yet and is part of a rather deep crew of all-rounders, the 22-year-old has toiled hard with Otago to fit somewhere in the middle of Wellington's recruitment trends.

What Wellington is doing stands out in the domestic cricket landscape, even though other teams are making recruitment moves. Neil Wagner and Colin de Grandhomme moved to Northern Districts Knights recently, which felt more in tune with NZ Cricket setting up a North Island base in Tauranga. Jeet Raval's move to ND Knights was quintessential 'change of scenery' vibes.

Auckland brought Kyle Jamieson back to Auckland after he moved to Canterbury once finishing school in Auckland. Canterbury recruited Darryl Mitchell in perhaps the best single bit of recruitment given that last summer Canterbury won Plunket Shield and Ford Trophy titles, while making the Super Smash final vs Wellington. Generally though, Canterbury and Central Districts Stags are full to the brim of local talent - even CD Stags 'recruit' Ajaz Patel wasn't a big transfer from Auckland as he had to climb to CD ranks back in the day.

Since Bennett's arrival in 2016, Wellington have won the Plunket Shield (2019/20), Ford Trophy (2018/19) and three Super Smash titles. During this time Bennett and van Beek have had multiple seasons among the best bowlers across the various competitions, Bracewell has settled into a captaincy role and Bennett joined Neesham sliding back into Blackcaps business. The Firebirds grabbed Allen and he exploded as a Super Smash opener, helping the Firebirds win their second Super Smash title in a row and earning an Indian Premier League deal in the process.

Throughout this period, Wellington have promoted a talented group of players from within and this coincides with grizzly experience moving on. Wellington's contracted player list for 2018/19 included Rachin Ravindra, Ben Sears and Lauchie Johns who were specifically mentioned as coming from the 'Firebirds Rookie Programme' instilled by Bruce Edgar (coach at the time) and Glenn Pocknall (current coach). This was followed by Troy Johnson coming through the Firebirds pathway to earn a contract ahead of the 2020 season, plus the likes of Jakob Bhula and Luke Georgeson have emerged.

That's just a taste of how Wellington have balanced their recruitment from other regions, with promoting through their system. This is interesting to note because it helps us understand the thinking behind all of this and my view is that Wellington have been specific in their recruitment to bridge the gap between their previous era and their talented younger crop. Being deep in all sorts of sports stuff leads me to ponder how neither is more important than the other; Wellington have equally high value on recruitment and building from within.

The two compliment each other and none of this would be possible without the supreme talent coming from the land of yellow and black. I've enjoyed the young wave taking over Aotearoa cricket, however going too deep in the young wave makes it hard to win game right now; with more Blackcaps than previous seasons and thus leaning more into their young wave, Wellington couldn't win a Plunket Shield game this season.

There appears to be intention with everything that Wellington cricket has done and they have built a organisation that other players want to be a part of. Sure, other bits and bobs have fallen on Wellington's lap in the form of Devon Conway. You make your own luck as they say and in bringing in solid domestic performers to lead one of the better development set-ups in Aotearoa, Wellington have made themselves attractive to players and coaches.

Whether those players are in Aotearoa, or in the case of Conway - who was looking for a new home town - and Iain O'Brien who was based in England; Wellington made themselves attractive to folks overseas. Now Wellington are set to unleash signings of Finn Allen and Nathan Smith for consecutive seasons.

None of this is to suggest that what Wellington is doing is better than other regions. Some regions have no need to recruit from elsewhere, while a team like Otago has done a nice job in recent seasons of recruiting fringe players from other regions like Nick Kelly (ND), Dale Phillips (Auckland), Cam Hawkins, Mitch Renwick and the forgotten bloke of domestic cricket Dean Foxcroft (all CD). Different teams have different needs, enjoying sport is to enjoy how these nuances are explored.

What is funky about Wellington is that this part of a holistic Wellington situation. Consider the pieces to the puzzle that have been mentioned, along with similar vibes in the Wellington Blaze. The Blaze added Maddy Green from Auckland a few years ago and more recently they brought in Leigh Kasperek from Otago, with Green being a long-term White Fern and Kasperek one of the best spinners in the world.

This is the clearest example in Aotearoa cricket of player recruitment and as I explored during the summer, Wellington have combined this with establishing a winning culture within their organisation. For both Wellington teams, their nifty recruitment (in conjunction with the culture etc) has seen them win trophies and how this plays out moving forward will continue to be a fun exercise in building a successful organisation.

Peace and love.