Vettori Voted Best Player by Peers in Annual Player Survey

Vettori Voted Best Player by Peers in Annual Player Survey

Daniel Vettori has been voted New Zealand Player of the Year by his peers in the annual NZCPA Player Survey. Central Districts allrounder Doug Bracewell has also been identified by his fellow players as the Most Promising Player in Domestic Cricket yet to play for the BLACKCAPS.

The annual NZCPA Player Survey canvasses the opinions of the country's first class and international cricketers across a range of cricketing issues within the professional cricketing environment including programming, formats, grounds and facilities, playing conditions and umpiring. The survey was completed by 84 of the country's best players.

NZCPA Chief Executive Heath Mills said the players' views and experiences played an important part in helping further develop and improve the New Zealand professional cricketing environment.

"The players are the principle stakeholder in the professional game. Their experiences out on the field and in the high performance environment are critical in helping administrators and other cricketing stakeholders understand what is going well and in helping to identify areas of improvement" said Mills

International Cricket

The players once again demonstrated their support for the longer version of the game with 79% stating that the ultimate achievement in the game is to play Test cricket for your country. This support from the players for the traditional form of the game reinforces the desire of many stakeholders to see the ICC establish a meaningful annual Test Championship in the near future.

When asked whether the ICC should introduce day/night Test cricket (provided a suitable ball can be developed), only 32.1% of players supported such a development.

Domestic Cricket

Overwhelmingly, 98.8% of players considered it important to retain all three formats of the game (First Class, One Day and T20) in a balanced domestic playing programme.

Nearly 84% of players felt there was appropriate spacing between fixtures in this year's domestic schedule providing good travelling, recovery and training windows.

A similar percentage (84%) thought the competition structure for the HRV Cup - including a home and away round robin and final - was good.

Over 90% of the players felt the current format of the Plunket Shield including a full home and away round robin was good, while 77.7% felt the current format for the One Day National Championship of eight rounds followed by an extended finals series of elimination matches was good.

Grounds and Facilities

The Basin Reserve was voted by the players as having the best wicket in the country. The survey indicated that University Oval in Dunedin had the most inconsistent wickets.

The Basin Reserve was also voted as having the best practice facilities and 80.8% of players considered that the overall quality of practice facilities at the main First Class grounds was good.

Cobham Oval in Whangarei was voted as having the best off field facilities and QEII Park in Christchurch was voted as having the least impressive.

Mark Perham from Eden Park and Colin Maiden Oval was once again voted the best groundsman in New Zealand.

Umpiring and Player Behaviour

The players were very positive about the relationship between First Class umpires and players with 91% stating that the relationship was good. Over 52 of players felt the umpiring in New Zealand is generally of a high standard.

Nearly 88% of players supported an increase in the use of technology in the game to assist umpires in decision making.

Just over 96% disagreed that player behaviour is an issue in domestic cricket. However, there was strong support for New Zealand Cricket (NZC) setting up a professional panel of Code of Conduct commissioners with 82% of players believing NZC should implement a national panel of three commissioners to ensure consistent penalties under the Code of Conduct.

NZCPA Activities

Pleasingly, 97.4% of players felt the NZCPA provides good assistance to professional players.
Almost 99% of players rated the Hooked on Cricket community programme highly and considered it important as it gives players the opportunity to directly give back to the community and contribute to the development of the game.

Eighty seven percent of players believe the Mitre10 MVP programme is a good tool in assisting to promote the domestic game and its players and 70.1% felt it was a good measure of a players contribution to team performance.

The Best

The Best players as voted by their peers are as follows:
New Zealand Player of the Year - Daniel Vettori
Best Test Batsman - Jesse Ryder
Best Test Bowler - Chris Martin
Best One Day Batsman - Ross Taylor
Best One Day Bowler - Daniel Vettori
Best T20 Batsman - Brendon McCullum
Best T20 Bowler - Daniel Vettori
Best All Round Fielder - Martin Guptill
Best Allrounder - Daniel Vettori
Best Wicketkeeper - Brendon McCullum
Most Promising Player in Domestic Cricket not to play for NZ - Doug Bracewell
Best Domestic Batsman not to play for NZ this season - Rob Nicol
Best Domestic Bowler not to play for NZ this season - Graeme Aldridge
Best International Batsma - Sachin Tendulkar
Best International Fast Bowler - Dale Steyn
Best International Spin Bowler - Muttiah Muralitharan
Best International Wicketkeeper - Brad Haddin