Mark Richardson Retires!!

[Nikhil]

Originally Posted by Andy Mellon

Just read this story on the BBC! He's only 33 and he's retiring!?! And from all cricket! This is very strange indeed.
.........
He plays his last first class game against Auckland next week

I actually liked him. Openers of his mould are rare these days. Even if they are boring to watch, they are valuable to the team. On nasty pitches, the real value of such players in known. NZ will certainly miss him, on their own green tops. Boring yes, useless *NO*.

[*Ben*]

Well Papps could be in some doubt for being selected after having a horrible time aganst auckaland scoring 6 i think i waz in the 1st innings and a second ball duck in the second innings, this game is also Mark Richardson's last ever first class game and he needs 41 runs to get to reach 10,000 first clas runs, in the first innings he made 35 but may not get to bat as the cantabs needing 180 to force auckland bat again they were 30/4 with Craig McMillin also making a magnificent golden duck so great form for the upcoming sri lankan tour.

[Mr Kiwi]

only one and a half domestic games to go on so far but still some fairly conclusive findings. i cast my net quite wide to include not only those who are in the frame, but also those who have done the job before with varying amounts of success.

my list of candidates (and their averages in two innings) reads:

Horne 21
Vincent 69.5
Jones 46.5
Cumming 45.3 (three innings, plus at the moment he's 10* overnight)
Papps 3 (four innings)
Sinclair 104 (only one innings)
How 167 (three innings, all 100s)

and for comparisons sake, Richardson avg is 40 so far

Fleming hasn't played domestic yet as he's too busy selling his book.

another player i'm watching keenly at domestic level (though not an opener) is Mr J R Wilson, who's been doing alright. Also Nathan Mccullum - time for another set of black cap brothers?

[*Ben*]

The only problem i have with Wilson is that well he must be getting on a bit in years now i mean when he played international cricket it was all good but that was 12 years ago now but good luck to him, Howe also failed to be the first kiwi batsmen to make 4 consecutive 100's getting out fot 74 today but still has an ave of around 130

[vvvrulz]

We should also realise that the next level is much superior to domestic cricket, Sinclair for example was in great nick during the last domestic season, but was somewhat indifferent in Australia, bar that 69 at the Gabba.

[*Ben*]

Thats true but we need to breed another opener and sinclair is not the answer, i say give him a go in the first test see what happens and play him in the second test reguardless, we need to give him at least 5tests to settle in the role as a test opener, Sinclair on the other is the ovious replacement for McMillan Because he is indeed a missle order batsmen.

[vvvrulz]

I agree, as an opener i'd be tempted to give Stephen Fleming a shot.

[Zainub]

I'm a bit of a fan of Lou Vincent, that guy made a 100 on debut against Australia, in Australia, not many people do that. I'd give him another chance.

[vvvrulz]

He was brought up in Aussie, hence he can't survive on our pathetic home pitches, lol.

[Paoli]

I remember him saying "Thank God for the thriving trade of DVD piracy on the sub-continent". Always a character, but was found out by good bowling too many times. But a great memory of the "Rigor Mortis" was when he battled severe cramps for a big hundred in India last September