Centralised venue could provide better pitch conditions in early season

Fine weather and better pitch conditions in the latter part of New Zealand's summer this year are likely to result in some serious thought being given to centralising the first rounds of the State Championship in order to take part of good pitch conditions.

Successful Auckland coach Mark O'Donnell, who saw his side win the Championship and finish second, by 17 runs after leading the State Shield at the completion of the round-robin phase, to Northern Districts in the domestic one-day competition, thinks greater use could be made of the superior pitch conditions at the High Performance Centre at Lincoln University earlier in the season.

It wasn't a case of conceding home advantage for teams, it was a case of getting good conditions for all players as early as possible.

Besides, no team could claim Lincoln as a home ground. Not even Canterbury. They never play there despite it being on their doorstep.

O'Donnell is sure the idea will be on the table when coaches meet for their annual review of the season in Christchurch.

While there was a longer term satisfaction in his side backing up their win of last year by regaining the Championship, he was disappointed the side hadn't been able to finish with a victory over Northern Districts yesterday.

"We would have liked to have won that game. We did try to win it but a little intensity went out of the game after hearing that Otago had beaten Wellington in Alexandra," he said.

He was delighted for his side nonetheless and said it had worked hard. While it hadn't ended up with an ideal balance, especially after the attack lost Kyle Mills and Andre Adams for the World Cup, and Gareth Shaw to a stress fracture, Tama Canning had responded well to end up with the most wickets in the competition.

O'Donnell offered a fresh perspective on the first-class scene in New Zealand, having been brought up in the system but having developed his coaching skills in South Africa from where he returned to take up the position with Auckland.

The pitches generally had been a lot better after Christmas and the best deck he felt Auckland struck during the summer was for the Shield match against Central Districts at Pukekura Park in New Plymouth. Queenstown had also been a good pitch.

He felt the last four games in the competition had been played too closely together and allowed no time for practice or work on technical aspects of the game for individual players.

That resulted in players not being able to improve their techniques while also contributing to a deal of tiredness through the latter stages of the summer. It meant that most of the technical adjustment work for players had to be done in the winter, which had to be indoors and not as good as working outside.

O'Donnell said it was vital that players going to international level had a solid record of first-class experience behind them. If that was played on better quality pitches then the transition, with the experience included, to international player would be much easier.

He pointed to the impact that hardened first-class players like Mark Richardson, Robbie Hart and Scott Styris, had made when they stepped up.

"It is good they have a lot of first-class cricket because it gives them a bit of an idea of what to fall back on if they get under a bit of pressure in international play," he said.

During the year he had been impressed with the batting of Craig Cumming for Otago, Richard Jones for Wellington, and Tim McIntosh and Matt Horne for Auckland.

Paul Hitchcock had bowled well in one-day play while Ian Butler had been the pick of the bowlers on the first-class scene while Kerry Walmsley and Chris Martin had bowled well in matches against Auckland.

O'Donnell said there was also a need to keep aiming for practice facilities to be developed to a good level and for matches to be played at as many international grounds as possible.