New Zealand announces eves' cricket team for India
Paritosh Parasher
New Zealand has included four new caps in its women's
cricket team to tour India.
New Zealand will play one four-day Test, five one-day internationals and
three other games in India on the tour, which takes off in November end. The
team is scheduled to leave on November 23.
Though the team for the Indian tour was announced on Tuesday, New Zealand
Cricket (NZC) officials are still keeping the option of cancelling the trip
open. This could be done in the light of tension in the region with the U.S.
and its allies poised to take military action against the Taliban regime in
Afghanistan.
Last month the NZC had called the New Zealand A men's side touring India
home because of security fears after the terrorist attacks in America. The
New Zealand men's tour to Pakistan was also cancelled for the same reason.
But if the women's tour goes on as scheduled, medium-pace bowlers Sarah
Burke and Fiona Fraser (both from Canterbury) would be among the new faces
in the squad. Two off-spinners, Anna Corbin (Wellington) and Aimee Mason
(Central District), have also been included in the White Ferns, as the New
Zealand women's cricket team is called, for the first time.
The inclusion of the four new cricketers has seen exit of four seasoned
members of the team, which is the reigning world champion.
The new look team has been described as "the start of a new era as we build
towards the 2005 World Cup" by White Ferns captain Emily Drumm.
According to the newspaper The Press, two of the team, which beat Australia
in the World Cup final on home turf at Christchurch, Debbie Hockley and
Cathrine Campbell, have retired. Two others, Katrina and Clare Nicholson,
have decided to take a break.
India is not likely to be much of a problem for the world-beaters from the
south Pacific. But the New Zealanders are not discounting the fact that
India can be a difficult proposition on its home pitches.
It is not that the New Zealand team has no experience of the subcontinent
conditions. Five of the World Cup winning team -- captain Emily Drumm,
Rebecca Rolls, Kathryn Ramel, Rachel Pullar and Nicola Payne -- are
survivors of the 1997 World Cup in India.
Although India does not rank among the leading women's cricket nations,
Drumm warned it would be a more formidable opponent on its home pitches.
The New Zealand team: Emily Drumm (capt), Kathryn Ramel, Sarah Burke, Anna
Corbin, Paula Flannery, Fiona Fraser, Erin McDonald, Aimee Mason, Anna
O'Leary, Nicola Payne, Rachel Pullar, Rebecca Rolls, Haidee Tiffen, Emily
Travers, Helen Watson.
--Indo-Asian News Service
Mail Cricket Editor
