Aotearoa's development pipeline is on show again in the emerging talent who got their first domestic cricket contracts from the first round of announcements. Like Blackcaps contracts, these do not determine game time as many of the first-timers have already played domestic cricket and that includes Otago's Mason Clarke who made his Super Smash, then Ford Trophy debuts as a 17-year-old.

Clarke played five Super Smash games and two Ford Trophy games last summer. His talent and style of bowling seems perfect for Plunket Shield so there is a strong chance he gets a crack in the longest format later this year. While Clarke didn't take any wickets in his Ford Trophy games, he did snare 4w @ 26.7avg/8.2rpo in the Super Smash where he was the youngest player in the competition.

Canterbury's duo Jesse Frew and Scott Janett also made their debuts last season, now they get their first contracts. 21-year-old Janett opened the batting alongside Rhys Mariu in his first Plunket Shield and Ford Trophy games, with 115 runs @ 100sr in his first one-dayer. Janett's century on Ford Trophy debut came after he scored 93 runs in his second Plunket Shield game, which makes him an undercover batter to track with Canterbury.

Frew is a 23-year-old wicket-keeper who is likely to get game time when Mitch Hay is unavailable. He didn't score many runs in his first five games of Plunket Shield but Frew has been an impressive junior in the Canterbury system who averages 40+ in the two-day and one-day tiers below the domestic level.

Rohit Gulati gets his first contract and he was covered in the funky movers break down. Siddhesh Dixit, Lachlan Stackpole and Samrath Singh debuted for Auckland last summer, now they get their first contracts. Dixit was a regular member of Auckland's Plunket Shield 1st 11 last season and had two 50+ scores in his 13 innings, also passing 20 runs in six of his eight innings during the second stanza.

Dixit is averaging 24.3 in First-Class batting so he would be eager to stamp his mark on the top-order for Auckland. Stackpole impressed during Auckland's run to the Ford Trophy final with back to back 50+ scores in the finals, including 58* in the final. He played his way into the Plunket Shield 1st 11 for the second stanza and along with Dixit, they are useful spin bowlers with Stackpole offering regular offies and Dixit a lefty finger spinner.

Singh is a seamer who has played two games of Plunket Shield without commanding much attention. Harrish Kannan is a funky selection for Auckland's contract list as he left club cricket in Melbourne to play in Auckland where he was gathering buzz as an emerging lefty batter. Dixit also left Melbourne and wound up in Auckland so this is could be a funky pathway to watch out for in the future.

The pathways in Aotearoa are also awesome though and Xavier Bell has come through the Northern Districts system to earn a contract as an 18-year-old batter. Bell doesn't just score centuries, he goes large with double and triple hundies. A quick check in with Bell's last game for ND-A reveals a knock of 151 runs as their opening batter, which followed a knock of 192 runs in the game before that. Both were three-dayers and Bell has scored runs in the other formats as well; his T20 record below the domestic level is 34.8avg/156sr.

Wellington's new contracts went to Samuel Morgan and Amogh Paranjpe, who are both local juniors sitting on lots of runs and wickets. Morgan hit a double century in club cricket earlier this year and hits the same 40+ average in two/one-dayers below domestic cricket as the other impressive batting talents getting their first contracts.

Paranjpe is a righty seamer who appears to be 19-years-old and he's averaging below 20 in all three formats below domestic cricket. The contract salute for Paranjpe follows swift seamer Yahya Zeb's move from Auckland to Wellington last summer and Wellington have an enticing seam bowling department which is led by coach (former Blackcaps bowling coach) Shane Jurgenson and assistant coach Azhar Abbas.

Central Districts don't have any new contracts but Toby Findlay was a late addition to their contract list last summer and he stays at this level ahead of the season. Findlay is a 22-year-old seamer who has played all three formats and found a groove during CD's Super Smash championship run, so he deserves a mention for the super settled CD group.

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