Franklin hopes for World Cup comeback

James Franklin has not given up on fighting into New Zealand's World Cup squad next year, despite losing his national contract during the off-season. Franklin will have an opportunity to press his claims when he captains New Zealand A in Zimbabwe in October, after enjoying a highly productive county season with Gloucestershire.

Franklin, 29, has an Irish passport and when he was cut from New Zealand's contracted group, briefly considered using his heritage to play in England as a local player. However, the lure of the black cap was enough to convince Franklin to keep pursuing his international goals, especially with a World Cup around the corner.

"Every domestic player around the world has got an eye on the World Cup," Franklin told ESPNcricinfo, before the New Zealand A squad was named. "Going back home and hopefully being able to put up some good domestic performances, hopefully I might be able to put my case forward for selection for that. We'll wait and see."

One of the major challenges for Franklin is to convince the selectors that he can lift his output at the elite level after struggling to grab his chances in 23 Tests and 75 ODIs. That could be extra difficult in a New Zealand side full of allrounders - Jacob Oram, Grant Elliott, Nathan McCullum, Kane Williamson and Scott Styris were all part of the recent tri-series in Sri Lanka.

"There's a lot of multi-skilled cricketers in the New Zealand side at the moment," Franklin said. "That can only be a good thing for the New Zealand team going forward into a World Cup come February and March. The guys that are there at the moment are ahead of me, so I've just got to try and perform well at domestic level and push my case that way and force my way back into the New Zealand side."

In Franklin's favour is the excellent form he has shown with Gloucestershire this year. He is second on the team's run-scoring list in the County Championship, with 821 runs at 32.84, and has also collected 45 wickets at 22.86, including a career-best 7 for 14 against Derbyshire a fortnight ago.

He also topped Gloucestershire's one-day run tally with 511 at 73.00, including two centuries, and their Twenty20 list with 470 at 39.16, when he was given the chance to open the batting. Those numbers have appealed to the New Zealand selectors, and Mark Greatbatch hopes the A-team captaincy will help "unlock something we have not seen before" from Franklin.

It is a strong indication that Franklin made the right move not to head to England permanently when he missed out on a national contract. Although he has not ruled out such a decision later in his career - Hamish Marshall has made the switch and will qualify for Ireland next year - Franklin still has the passion to play for his country.

"I'm lucky in that I have an Irish passport through my grandparents, so I have a few options up my sleeve," Franklin said. "I want to still go back home this summer and play for Wellington, try and win trophies with them and on top of that if I could try to get back in the New Zealand side for a World Cup, or even before that for Test match cricket, then that would be great.

"It's not a decision that you can take lightly. It wasn't a decision to come to England and play as a local, that I wanted to make quite yet. I like to think that being 30 in November I've still got a good five to six or seven years of cricket ahead of me, as long as I can stay fit."