NZ A to tour Zim in October

[CrimsonAvenger]

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/ar ... d=10672047

New Zealand look poised to resume playing contact with Zimbabwe, with an A team expected to tour the African country in October.

New Zealand Cricket postponed a tour to Zimbabwe last year and again this year because of concerns about health and security.

That tour is expected to go ahead around the middle of next year, and the A team will act as a forerunner of that.

The schedule is likely to comprise several four-day games, and the tour is being designed to give cricket to players who are not required in the extensive T20 and ODI programme of the coming summer.

"It will be really useful for the test specialists who will need to be fit and ready for the tour to India," said New Zealand Cricket chief executive Justin Vaughan yesterday. The tour is being planned to coincide with New Zealand's five-game ODI series in Bangladesh.

Among those likely to be included in the Zimbabwe trip are players such as test opener Tim McIntosh and experienced new ball bowler Chris Martin, neither of whom will be required in Bangladesh, and some of the country's younger, up-and-coming batsmen.

Most of the senior batsmen, such as Ross Taylor, Martin Guptill and Jesse Ryder will be on limited-overs duty in Bangladesh.

New Zealand last played Zimbabwe in 2005, and have been there on four test tours since 1992.

Bring it on!

[Boundary]

Excellent news. So do we play our Intercontinental squad or the prospective Test team?

[maehara]

Excellent news. So do we play our Intercontinental squad or the prospective Test team?

We should probably be playing the senior side in these - need them to score a few wins against Full Member 'A' sides to underscore their readiness for a Test return. Depending on the dates the 'A' side may be tied up with Ireland & Scotland anyway.

[farhanhussan]

players who will perform well in Logan cup should be given run for this series .

[kartik]

Will be interesting to see if colin de grandhomme is picked for the series.

[CrimsonAvenger]

Will be interesting to see if colin de grandhomme is picked for the series.

Ha! That would be fun . He might get a 'Hickesque' (no, that word doesn't sound good) reception. Hope someone can make him his bunny, a la Eddo Brandes...

[Zimfanatic69]

Will be interesting to see if colin de grandhomme is picked for the series.

Yeah, it would be very interesting to see if he is picked.

[brmtaylor.com admin]

http://www.cricinfo.com/newzealand/cont ... 76605.html

New Zealand A: James Franklin (capt), Graeme Aldridge, Brent Arnel, Nick Beard, Dean Brownlie, Daniel Flynn, Martin Guptill, Gareth Hopkins (wk), Jamie How, Peter Ingram, Tim McIntosh, Chris Martin, Jeetan Patel, Bhupinder Singh, Reece Young.

[andybligz]

very stong side sent by the kiwis .. will really test us out and show if we can match the stronger nations.

[Zimfanatic69]

That is a good side they are sending.

I would like to see some of our young up and coming stars given a run against them.