It's Ford Trophy Time!

Posted Monday, 29 November, 2021 in Domestic News

The NZC men's one-day season begins this Tuesday with much of this season's Ford Trophy sprinkled in between Dream11 Super Smash weekends - a great way to keep an eye on the men's white-ball form!

Defending champion Canterbury is in action straight away with an away season opener at Hamilton's Seddon Park against last season's runners-up, Northern Districts.

MATCH CENTRE

Potential debutant and seamer Will O'Rourke (20) has been named in their squad that sports a mix of experience and youth and is looking to keep up a strong start to summer.

Says coach Peter Fulton, "We’ve played some really good cricket [in our red-ball season], so the basics of cricket don’t change.

"We’ve got to keep doing the basics well, and hopefully the guys will have really strong campaigns and that will help us win games.

And, any time someone has a chance to debut is always a really special time. Will is an exciting young fast bowler and hopefully has a long career in front of him."

The squad is without BLACKCAPS Tom Latham, Henry Nicholls and Daryl Mitchell who are overseas with the Test team taking on India, and BLACKCAP Todd Astle who is in MIQ returning from the India T20 series.

But Northern are without some of their star names as well, and also sport a mix of youth and experience.

Clarke (above) amassed 387 runs in last season’s Ford Trophy and missed the side’s opening two Plunket Shield matches due to injury. He says he’s hoping the team can go one further this time around.

“We’ve got some very good players coming through the ranks and guys that have played a little bit of cricket now for ND, so they know what it’s about.”