Vettori decision an example of tighter injury thinking

New Zealand left-arm spinner Daniel Vettori's withdrawal from consideration for the third and final One-Day International against Pakistan at the weekend was a decision made by New Zealand Cricket's chief executive Martin Snedden.

During an interview with CricInfo on the NZC response to the injury crisis which has again hit the national side, Snedden said among the issues being specifically looked at was the attitude towards players being selected for the side when they are partially injured.

He then pointed to Vettori as a case in point.

"Daniel is under careful management. We need to ensure that the Black Caps' team management understand the players should not be risked.

"A good example of this was when I stepped into the decision on whether he should play in the last ODI or not."

Snedden said the most important thing with Vettori was having him available for Test matches in Pakistan and the West Indies over the next two months.

"The advice we have is that one-day cricket has a tendency to stir up his back.

"The vigour of fielding in ODIs is much more severe than in Test matches and this could be something that is stirring up his back.

"Why risk him? The series was gone, there were fit players over and if we are trying to develop a second spinner we have to have the confidence to play one regularly.

"Richard Hadlee (the chairman of selectors) fully supported my decision," Snedden said.

It is the sort of stance that may be taken more often.

Snedden said NZC was working continuously on finding ways out of its injury crisis.

A good deal of information was being shared with Australia, while there were also connections with England and South Africa.

"A couple of years ago NZC did a study to see how its injury problems compared with other countries and we actually had a lower injury rate than other countries. But that was two years ago.

"But we have had a horror run. It just creeps up on you.

"I thought this year we were doing well but then they happened," he said.

Snedden said NZC had initiated a review of its medical team and its fitness programmes in order to make sure they were doing as much as they could in the area.

He wondered, from his own observation, if elite and developing players were doing too much bowling indoors.

Sports science had come a long way in 20 years but the amount of bowling being done indoors had increased.

"I wonder if we don't manage the transition from bowling indoors to outdoors well enough. It does have an impact on the body. There may be problems there. But that is a layman's view," Snedden said.

Another area Snedden believes should be looked at is the effect of air travel, not necessarily the number of days, but the days between flights.

The number of really competitive days had increased for players. While the international players were probably playing the same number of days as players 20 years ago, they were playing many more international days by comparison. And that was harder on them.

"With the amount of travel they have, they are reasonably quickly going into very busy playing programmes, and that creates a vulnerability," he said.

Rest was increasingly an important factor to be considered.

Snedden was aware of comment among the public that NZC didn't seem to know what they were doing.

"We don't have the answers, but we are attempting to find them and we are making some progress," he said.

Even to the point of possibly looking at American baseball to see if they have any techniques or programmes that might have a cricket benefit.

He said he had also noted recent comments on the local rugby scene that the Canterbury Crusaders Super 12 franchise had adopted a policy of not playing players unless they were fully fit.

"It might be worthwhile for our players to get next to the Crusaders management to discuss their approach on the subject," he said.