Following last weekend's trial, Bay of Plenty Cricket has named its senior quad. Former Black Cap Llorne Howell will captain the side again this season. The 15 strong squad is as follows:

Llorne Howell, Jonathan Boult, Peter Drysdale, Bharrat Popli, Ben Williams, James Mitchell, Richard Rice, Daniel Hill, Ben Christenson, Jason Trembath, Tony Gooden, Andrew Gibbs, Andrew Hoogstraten, Campbell Wilson and Brian Jurisich.

Bay captain and cricket writer Llorne Howell.

There is a new format for selecting provincial sides in Northern Districts Cricket. Each sub association must choose 15 players and the players not chosen are available to be selected by another province.
For BOP players it means that the players ranked 16-19 can be "drafted" by Poverty Bay to strengthen that team.
However, if there are injuries in the 15 players chosen the replacements cannot come from the four allowed drafted players.
It is a huge season for the Bay team who are leading the points to have a challenge for the Hawke Cup. As well as that there are many players who can have a crack at the ND ‘A' side.
Brian Jurisch from the Mount club has improved his pace while away in the Netherlands and is a real fit young athlete; this is exactly what NZ Cricket wants. You can't have too many big guys running around a Twenty20 or one-day match. Jason Trembarth, the left arm spinner from Central, has impressed with his flight and could easily make it. Jono Boult has played for the Knights before and was left alone after a successful match against Auckland in Whangerei. Andrew Gibbs bowled some great spells last year. He has the tools to go further but to be a pro he would need to make it easier on his joints by getting a little more like a flanker than like Merv Hughes.
One guy who could really push through the A's and straight into the Knights set up is Richard Rice. He played all under age cricket for Northern Districts and as well as keeping can actually bat. This doesn't mean he can wog a few balls. It means he can play as a batsman scoring ones and twos and then lift the tempo. Or can be a hitter when need be. There is no other keeper who is definitely behind Peter McGlashan in Northern Districts so Richard is right up there.
Bharat Popli showed excellent mental skills in scoring two hundreds for the Bay in his first season. He should go close to the ‘A' side. Glenn Turner was one of the great batsmen of NZ and his ability to switch on and off between balls to minimise the energy he used was very special. Bharat seems to have this ability. You need it if you want to consistently bat long hours at the crease.
Mark Richardson retired early because he stayed wound up the entire time. Brilliant performer but he drained himself every time he scored big runs. He said that after scoring the hundred against England at Lords that he was shot. He needed four months off as he was completely spent.
Nathan Astle on the other hand was just ‘see the ball, hit the ball'. He did not seem to get too stressed. Mind you, he had the talent to average similar to Martin Crowe, but due to his ‘see the ball, hit it' philosophy basically had the same game through his career. Martin constantly looked at ways to improve. If Martin had played in Australia with batters dominating at the other end he may have averaged 55.
Tony Goodin is still being chased by Western Australia for a contract so he is another that will go very close to the ‘A's. He just needs to show the other provinces what he has and he will go up the pecking order very quickly.
Andrew Hoogstraten has been very close in the past as a front line seamer. A good tournament in Taupo in a month's time could see him jump into ‘A' contention as well.
James Mitchell has a lot of ability as does Daniel Hill. Good performances would take both close to the ‘A's. Ben Williams from Te Puke could easily make it if he gets the runs and bowls some useful spells. As a pro player and not a pro coach Ben could improve his cricket as he could spend the time focusing on areas that would quickly make him better. Coaching all the time you tend to focus on the bare minimum to keep your game in check. Coaching and playing is draining as all you talk about is cricket. If you are just a pro player you can get away from the game when you need to and so freshen the batteries. Not so much the body, but to get excited about playing again.
BOP also has five contracted Knights: Davis, Aldridge, Williamson, Flynn and Boult.

Elsewhere in local cricket, there are changes to the structure of Rotorua Cricket. Amanda Gallacher is the new cricket co-ordinator. The role of Community Cricket Officer has been split into two roles as has proved to be such a heavy workload. Amanda will focus on administration and maintaining programmes. Rotorua Cricket will then employ a second person to go out and deliver the coaching content to schools and the rep sides. The community cricket officer from last year Alistar Stevic is doing the same role in Rarotonga as the ICC looks to provide resources in many parts of the globe.
Amanda went to JP College where she played cricket. She was a ND rep at youth level. Her first sport was netball. She played for the Rotorua women's cricket team when she left school when they played in the Hamilton competition. She also played cricket in Palmerston North while doing a psychology degree. Before joining Rotorua Cricket she was working as a bathroom design consultant in Rotorua. A one year old daughter has meant this is the perfect role for her.