Turner back, but not at former height

Press, 9 April 1979, Page 28

Turner back, but not at former height

Glenn Turner is back in the New Zealand cricket team but the former test captain is not back in the side’s hierarchy. Turner is by far the most experienced player — not least in limited-over games — but he is not a tour selector for the Prudential World Cup tournament. The Cricket Council's board of control, at its meeting during the week-end, appointed the manager, Mr G. T. Dowling, the captain, Mark Burgess, and the vicecaptain, Geoff Howarth, to select the teams. Mr Dowling and Burgess are both full national selectors. However, they will be the only selectors for most of the pre-toumament matches. The four professionals in the side — Turner, Howarth, Richard Hadlee, and John Wright — will miss most of those games. To cover their absence — only 10 players will remain — the selectors will call on New Zealand first-class players living and playing in England. Mostly very promising players, they include Vaughan Brown, Peter Webb, John Wiltshire, Bruce

' Blair, Stewart McCullum, 'lan Smith, and Robert I Vance. I A former international, Mike Shrimpton, will also be in Europe. Only one first-class match is being played, against Leicestershire at the end of May. The well-known English entrepreneur, Mr Derrick Robins, will probably bring a team of first-class players to New Zealand for three or four weeks in Feb-ruary-March next year. Robins hopes to include Singapore. Papua New Guinea, and Tasmania in his tour. The board felt that the tour could serve as a means of taking overseas cricketers to its minor associations. The Robins XI would probably arrive near the end of the West Indies tour, in late February. Players will be allowed to write newspaper articles and commentate on radio, subject to approval by the manager and captain. They will be cautioned against making personality comments. Tracksuits — acceptable cricketing wear, or not? This

was a question that occupied an hour of the board’s time before it settled on a liberalising of attitudes, but without any compromise from Mr W. A. Hadlee. In fact, such was the disagreement on differing factors that the chairman (Mr R. A. Vance) resorted to presenting questions to board members and seeking “yes/no” answers. From their responses, team tracksuits will be permitted in warm-ups or calisthenics, for "hit-ups,” and in general wear. They are banned in nets. Any inscriptions or adornments on the track suits must be first approved by an association’s board of control member.