Date-stamped : 25 Jun97 - 06:18
18 June 1997

Vettori Decides To Join Academy

Teenage spin bowling find Daniel Vettori will be based at the New
Zealand Cricket Academy at Lincoln University in coming months
after initially declining an invitation to come to Christchurch.

Vettori, 18, had a change of plans recently when his cricket
commitments later this year clashed with his academic studies at
Waikato University.

Vettori wanted to use a scholarship he had won to the Hamilton
campus to start a pharmacy degree, but New Zealand's tour to
Zimbabwe and then Australia from September through to the end of
the year made doing the course impossible.

So Vettori has been accepted as the 15th member of the
Brierley-NZC Academy and, after having had a week there recently,
returns later this week to become a fully fledged member.

Academy chief Dayle Hadlee welcomed Vettori's arrival, but said
that although the young bowler had made a major impact in his
test debut this season, he would be treated no differently to
others in the group whose course began in April.

Vettori has just returned from India having been part of an
unofficial New Zealand team organised by Dipak Patel which played
and lost two games against India and Pakistan.

Vettori and other spin bowlers in the group look set to benefit
from time with Australians Peter Philpott and Terry Jenner and
New Zealanders John Bracewell and Dipak Patel, who will visit the
academy in coming weeks.

Hadlee said the intake was working well and a programme superior
to the the previous year, the academy's first, was in place.

Cross-sport training was taking place with the players soon to
embark on fencing to assist with footwork, hand-eye co-ordination
and fast backwards and forward movements.

Hadlee's next assignment is to help finalise an academy team to
make its first overseas tour to South Africa in late August-early
September.

The team will play six games (a four-day game and a one-dayer)
against South African academy selections at Durban, Pretoria and
Johannesburg.

If members of the academy are considered for the team, which has
still to be determined, and also make the New Zealand side to
visit Zimbabwe, the dates of the tours work in well, Hadlee said.
It is envisaged national coach Steve Rixon will coach the academy
team with Hadlee as manager.


Source :: The Christchurch Press (http://www.press.co.nz)

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