2021 Domestic Cricket Contracts (First Round)
The first round of domestic cricket contracts have been dished out and there is little movement between the teams again this winter as most promote from within. I'm working off the lists offered by each cricket association and Northern Districts don't have an updated list so I can't touch on them just yet. Remember that this is the first round of contracts and each team can add one or two more players to their contracted list in the second round depending on their first round list.
Auckland Aces have made the biggest recruitment move with George Worker leaving Central Districts Stags to venture north. Worker joins a settled Aces crew and he's coming off a fairly solid summer in which he averaged 38.54 in T20 cricket, 26.07 in First-Class and 39.66 in List-A cricket. As a mark of how CD Stags depth, Worker's departure doesn't really leave any holes in their batting line up and the Stags have all their needs within their region as they haven't recruited from elsewhere once again.
Worker has been a consistent presence at the top of the order with Greg Hay and Will Young's possible Blackcaps future could further stretch the Stags top-order depth. Ben Smith is an interesting bloke to keep tabs on as he made his FC debut in 2011 and has had flashes of quality up the top of the Stags batting line up in his 62 FC games. Last season Smith only played three Plunket Shield games and that's the fewest in a season for Smith since 2012; the opening is there for him.
Wellington Firebirds have snapped up Nathan Smith from Otago Volt in a move that was hinted at a few weeks ago. Smith's a talented all-rounder and Wellington now have a hearty crew of all-rounders to provide 1st 11 balance regardless of who is playing, especially with Luke Georgeson promoted to the contracted list. Smith has been on the scene for a few years and shown his prowess with bat and ball, yet the real funk is with Georgeson who those outside Wellington may want to acquaint themselves with.
Right now 22-year-old Georgeson is in Ireland playing for Northern Knights, flipping between 50-over and T20 cricket. In four games of one-day cricket, Georgeson scored 189 runs @ 47.25avg with 2 half-centuries along with 4w @ 43.25avg/6.92rpo. Georgeson has now played three games of T20 cricket with 92 runs @ 30.66avg/126.02sr and 3w @ 10.66avg/6.40rpo via his seam bowling. Georgeson is among the best bowlers and batsmen in either competition.
In his FC debut last summer for Wellington, Georgeson opened the batting and was a key figure with the ball (2w, 3w). Georgeson may have suffered an injury during the Plunket Shield as his overs vanished and he stuck to his opening batsman role which saw him finish the Plunket Shield with 193 runs @ 27.57avg with 2 fifties in four games. Those 5w in his first game saw Georgeson finish with a super healthy bowling record of 5w @ 16.60avg and given how Wellington develop their young cricketers, keep a close eye on Georgeson moving forward.
Everything's stock standard for Canterbury, with the addition of Harry Chamberlain leading the way. Chamberlain played two Plunket Shield games last summer with 163 runs @ 54.33avg via a knock of 132 in his last game of the season. Chamberlain also hit 66* (143.47sr) for Canterbury in a warm up T20 game vs Pakistan Shaheens and the Shaheens bowling attack featured internationals such as Haris Rauf and Wahab Riaz.
The nature of this beast is that the big-donnie domestic cricket teams have their stocks fill and thus are zoning in on promoting cricketers from within their system. Otago Volts have again been nifty in their recruitment business by signing Jake Gibson from Northern Districts and this continues the trend in their mahi over the last few years; Nick Kelly, Dean Foxcroft, Jarrod McKay, Dale Phillips and Mitch Renwick were all fringe players with other teams.
Seamer Gibson was impressive in his five Ford Trophy games last season with 12w @ 14.83avg and this will help Otago absorb the bowling loss of Smith. Angus McKenzie is also new to the Volts list and he showed promising all-round signs last summer in this three PS and five FT games. Factor in Dean Foxcroft who has been stuck in South Africa since the woes of 2020 started and the Volts have various young, eager lads to take them forward.
Foxcroft didn't play last summer and if the Volts can seal his return to Aotearoa, they'll add a bloke who averages 51.15 in 17 LA games and 41.46 in 18 T20 games with the bat. Foxcroft only averages 26.30 in eight FC games and that's off-set by Foxcroft's taking 21w @ 18.04 via his offies in FC cricket. Not too shabby huh?
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