Big Central Districts all-rounder Jacob Oram is on the verge of making his comeback from injury.

One of the finds of last summer when he made his debut for the CLEAR Black Caps, Oram has suffered a broken bone in his foot, and then when close to recovery suffered a setback with the foot.

He has been named by Central Districts as the manager on their trip to Alexandra for their State Championship match against Otago. That has been done to allow him to train with the side each day before attempting to make his comeback in the next match against Canterbury, starting on Monday next week.

Meanwhile, the Northern Districts team was missing Mark Bailey's name when it was released for their match against Wellington starting tomorrow. The languid right-hander played 89 first-class games and has been a stalwart of ND cricket for the past decade.

While he never played a Test match for New Zealand he was called to the West Indies in 1996 as a replacement player and he was a member of the New Zealand one-day team which played in the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur.

A portable pitch on the main oval at Eden Park will be used for the Auckland-Canterbury game. It is another test for the portable pitch after the disappointment caused by drainage problems in the tray the pitch sits in for last summer's match against Pakistan.

Canterbury leads the championship at the moment. Points are: Canterbury 16, Auckland 13, Northern Districts 12, Wellington 9, Central Districts 6, Otago 4.

Teams for the next round of State Championship play are:

Auckland: Brooke Walker (captain), Matt Horne, Aaron Barnes, Tama Canning, Chris Drum, Nick Horsley, Llorne Howell, Tim McIntosh, Rob Nicol, Mark Richardson, Gareth Shaw, Reece Young.

Canterbury: Gary Stead (captain), Jarrod Englefield, Robbie Frew, Shanan Stewart, Aaron Redmond, Gareth Hopkins, Paul Wiseman, Warren Wisneski, Stephen Cunis, Ryan Burson, Peter Fulton, Chris Martin.

Northern Districts: Robbie Hart (captain), Scott Styris (vice-captain), Graeme Aldridge, Grant Bradburn, Simon Doull, Matthew Hart, James Marshall, Hamish Marshall, Bruce Martin, Joseph Yovich, Michael Parlane.

Wellington: Matthew Bell (captain), Richard Jones, Selwyn Blackmore, David Sales, Grant Donaldson, James Franklin, Matthew Walker, Andrew Penn, Mark Gillespie, Jeetan Patel, Mark Jefferson, Glynn Howell.

Otago: Craig Cumming (captain), Andrew Hore, Robert Lawson, Simon Beare, Chris Gaffaney, Martyn Croy, Craig Pryor, Nathan Morland, David Sewell, Kerry Walmsley, James McMillan, Rob Smith.

Central Districts: Glen Sulzberger (captain), David Kelly, Peter Ingram, Mathew Sinclair, Ben Smith, Peter McGlashan, Campbell Furlong, Bevan Griggs, Andrew Schwass, Brent Hefford, Michael Mason, Lance Hamilton.

© CricInfo