Kanitkar doubles up as captain, manager

JODHPUR, Oct 4: Sunny weather greeted the New Zealand cricketers on arrival here for their three-day match against Board President's XI a...

JODHPUR, Oct 4: Sunny weather greeted the New Zealand cricketers on arrival here for their three-day match against Board President’s XI at the Barakatullah Khan Stadium from Tuesday.

With the start of the 1st Test at Mohali scheduled for October 10, the Kiwis are keen to have full match practice after the washout against India A at Pune.

“We enjoy the sun. No need for jumpers like at home,” manager Jeff Crowe said after the practice session. “We hope to catch up with lost time.”

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“The wicket looks good. There shouldn’t be too much movement. There should be good work for both our batsmen and bowlers,” said Crowe after inspecting the wicket at the 27,000 capacity stadium.

Speaking about the 53-day tour of India, Jeff Crowe said their series win in England had given his team the confidence that they can win even away from home. “Ours is a confident unit now. They now believe that they can win, especially win matches away from home. There is no motivational problem for the team,” he said. “Theteam’s level of play has definitely lifted following our fantastic series win in England,” he added.

“Whatever be the ultimate result, we will give the Indian sporting crowd some entertaining and positive cricket in the next few weeks,” Crowe said.President’s XI skipper Hrishikesh Kanitkar is playing a dual role. Besides leading the team, he is also doing administrative duties as manager of the team. The Indian side here is without a coach or manager.

The playing of the home team will be announced tomorrow morning in consultation with the selectors. “I don’t know whether any of the selectors will come here to watch the match or not. I will talk to them on phone tonight,” Kanitkar said.

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Teams: New Zealand (from): Stephen Fleming (captain), Dion Nash (vice-captain), Nathan Astle, Matthew Bell, Chris Cairns, Chris Drum, Chris Harris, Matthew Horne, Craig McMillan, Shayne O’Connor, Adam Parore (wk), Andrew Penn, Craig Spearman, Daniel Vettori and Paul Wiseman.

Board XI: Hrishikesh Kanitkar (captain)Vikram Rathore, Gagan Khoda, Sameer Dighe, Virender Sehwag, Devender Bundela, P Mullick, Harbhajan Singh, Rahul Sanghvi, Ashish Nehra, AW Zaidi, Sanjay Bangar, Rajiv Nayyar and Jai Prakash Yadav.