Balance - It is the one constant whenever Jacob Oram’s worth in the New Zealand test side was questioned.

Over the past couple of seasons in particular, when injuries and a seemingly terminal loss of form combined to reduce Oram to passenger status, Daniel Vettori was quick to point to the “balance” the big left-hander brought to the team.

At his best, he was the ultimate two-for-the-price-of-one cricketer, the rightful heir to the throne vacated by Chris Cairns, capable of scoring test centuries against the best attacks in the world, while troubling good batsmen with his height and ability to hit the seam.

At his least effective, he was still a threat in the middle order and an economical stock bowler who could keep opposition line-ups in check.

While there are myriad options to replacing Oram, there are five that would seem more attractive than most.

OPTION 1 Select James Franklin as a like-for-like straight swap.

Pros: He wants the job, telling his local paper: “I’m hoping [the selectors] think I’m the guy for that. I think I can do a job there for New Zealand. I’ve done it for years for Wellington, batting at No6 and bowling, so it’s nothing different for me.”

At his best, Franklin would offer the sort of balance a fit Jacob Oram provided, with his cultured left-handed batting and left-arm swing variety with the ball. If you watched him in the nets and knew nothing of his test record, who would think that he was a world-class player rather than a fringe selection.

Cons: “At his best” is the operative statement. Hands up - outside those who regularly attend Wellington’s first-class fixtures - anybody who has actually seen Franklin at his best? Over the past three seasons he has batted like a lion in first-class cricket, but looks as timid Read more…

Administrator New Zealand Australia, Blogs.CMDN.com, Brendon McCullum, Chris Cairns, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, Daniel Vettori, Franklin, Grant Elliott, Jacob Oram, Jesse Ryder, Mark Richardson, Ross Taylor, Sri Lanka, Stephen Fleming

It’s early season in South Africa so maybe this Champions Trophy will be won by bowlers.

That’s unlikely - but if it is the case then, with three bowlers, Daniel Vettori, Kyle Mills and Shane Bond, all within the top 10 ranked ODI performers, there’s plenty of reason for hope.

That may be false hope because you cannot win enough ODIs in succession if your top five batsmen are failing. The fact we have 30 world-class overs available and continue to slip in ODI rankings proves there are major problems in our batting.

So why do we boast a top five line-up with more than acceptable records and yet fail to win enough games?

Jesse Ryder, Martin Guptill, Ross Taylor and Grant Elliott all boast averages above 35 with excellent strike rates. In fact they are numerically better or comparable to key players in the 2000 Champions Trophy winning team like Roger Twose, Stephen Fleming, Chris Harris and Craig MacMillan.

Then we have Jacob Oram in the top five ODI all-rounders list but here is when the statistics start to tell the true story.

Two of the most influential ODI players this country has had were Nathan Astle and Chris Cairns.

Their equivalents in the current team are Brendon McCullum and Oram, probably our most highly paid cricketers and thus meant to be world class performers. But they are far from it.

Astle averaged 35 at a 73 strike rate with 16 hundreds; McCullum is 28 at 88 and Read more…

Administrator Champions Trophy, New Zealand Blogs.CMDN.com, Brendon McCullum, Champions Trophy, Chris Cairns, Chris Harris, Craig MacMillan, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, Daniel Vettori, Grant Elliott, Jacob Oram, Jesse Ryder, Kyle Mills, Martin Guptill, Nathan Astle, New Zealand, ODI, Roger Twose, Ross Taylor, Shane Bond, Stephen Fleming

There has been some furious debate about the wretched performances of the New Zealand team in Sri Lanka this week - we really were dreadful with the bat against Sri Lanka and India. Flat. Woeful. Inept.

The usual “sack them all”, “bring the young blokes in”, “unprofessional”, “Moles is crap”, “overpaid”, “no ticker”, “Kane Williamson for president” calls have been made by observers this week, but the reality is that the best players are probably there.

However, we have now lost 7 of our last 8 ODIs to Australia, India and Sri Lanka so the side should not be beyond reproach. Given the top order batting on display this week, some confident swinging of the willow from Son of Rodney Redmond could have been a worthwhile inclusion for the looming Champions Trophy. I am a genuine Maccaphiliac so I would have Craig McMillan straight back in there if he could be swayed. The records of Michael Papps, Jamie How, Scott Styris and Peter Fulton are also within cooee of the players that are in the team at present.

Of course, the Trophy squad is already named and none of the blokes above is there. Of the limited options that are on the table, I think Gareth Hopkins, Mr Grittiness, is due a start. Jacob Oram continues to wrestle with some batting demons that he will surely shake sometime soon. Brendon McCullum’s had one ton and 15 half-centuries in his career but the average of 28.07 lags How, Chris Cairns and even Mathew Sinclair at the moment. He’d be back down the Read more…

Administrator New Zealand Brendon Diamanti, Brendon McCullum, Champions Trophy, Chris Cairns, Daniel Vettori, Daryl Tuffey, Gareth Hopkins, Grant Elliott, Ian Butler, Jacob Oram, Jamie How, Jeetan Patel, Jesse Ryder, Kyle Mills, Martin Guptill, Mathew Sinclair, Michael Papps, Nathan McCullum, Neil Broom, New Zealand, Peter Fulton, Ross Taylor, Scott Styris, Shane Bond, South Africa, Sri Lanka, T20

One day, your son or daughter might pull a copy of Wisden from the bookshelf, or more likely magic Andrew Flintoff’s stats on to a computer screen, and ask the killer question: “Was he really that good?”

And you’ll sigh and chuckle, having recalled ‘that’ over at Edgbaston back in 2005, or his five-for at Lord’s in 2009, or his 167 against West Indies in Birmingham in 2004. And you’ll find yourself saying, rather patronisingly, “you’ll never really understand”.

The record books will tell future generations that Flintoff wasn’t even the best all-rounder of his time. South Africa’s Jacques Kallis, with his 10,000-plus runs, his 31 Test centuries, his 258 wickets, rather swamps Flintoff in terms of cold statistics.

Chris Cairns of New Zealand, in a career blighted by injury, averaged higher with bat and lower with ball. Another Kiwi, Daniel Vettori, runs Flintoff close on batting stats and has taken 18 five-fors to the Lancastrian’s three and three 10-wicket matches to Flintoff’s none.

But then the English have never really dealt in cold statistics when it comes to choosing their heroes. Most will take the maverick James Hunt over the monochrome Nigel Mansell; the lavishly gifted but fatally flawed Jimmy White over Steve Davis, the cold-blooded winner; “daft as a brush” Gazza over Brand Beckham.

Indeed, Seve Ballesteros, the winner of five majors, elicits more love from the English public than Nick Faldo, winner of six majors and arguably his country’s greatest ever individual Read more…

Administrator England Adam Nicolson, Birmingham, Blogs.CMDN.com, Chris Cairns, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, Daniel Vettori, Edgbaston, Flintoff, Jacques Kallis, Nick Faldo, Seve Ballesteros