Afghanistan hit Scotland World Cup hopes

Afghanistan 261 for 5 (Nabi 51) beat Scotland 259 for 9 (Coetzer 133, Davey 64) by five wickets
Scorecard

Afghanistan drew level with Scotland in second in the ICC's WCL Championship table after a five-wicket win that boosted their hopes of securing automatic qualification for the 2015 World Cup. A second defeat to the same opponents in three days, meanwhile, was a significant blow to Scotland's chances of finishing in the top two.

Despite Kyle Coetzer's run-a-ball 133, only three other batsmen got into double figures as Scotland made 259 from their 50 overs. Afghanistan put on several solid partnerships, with the lowest score among the top six being 28, and Mohammad Nabi rattled off 51 from 44 balls to put them on the brink of victory. A few blows from the powerful Gulbodin Naib were enough to finish the game with eight balls to spare.

Nabi had earlier taken two wickets but Scotland will rue not having made a more challenging total after reaching 144 for 1 in the 32nd over. Coezter and Josh Davey (64) had combined for a second-wicket partnership of 134 but Hamid Hassan broke the stand and Samiullah Shenwari (3-42) ripped out the middle order. Dawlat Zadran took two wickets and also ran out Coezter to prevent Scotland getting away.

Ireland lead the WCL Championship with 13 points, with Scotland and Afghanistan on 11, having played two games more. Netherlands, in fourth, face Namibia next month, while fifth-placed UAE host Ireland later in March. There will be a further two rounds of games, with the top two teams guaranteed a spot at the next World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

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Sangakkara issues challenge to new generation

On the first day of a series aimed at regenerating Sri Lanka's Test side, Kumar Sangakkara has laid down a challenge for the young batsmen who are now set for an extended stint. Sri Lanka fielded four batsmen with fewer than ten Tests' experience, including a debutant, all of whom are yet to score a Test hundred. Angelo Mathews, who was recently appointed Test captain, has a solitary century to his name.

Of the young players, Lahiru Thirimanne finished unbeaten on 74 at stumps, having negotiated comfortably both seam and spin, alongside Mathews who was 25 not out. Dimuth Karunaratne had earlier made 41, having resumed his innings after retiring hurt when he was hit on the elbow.

"For guys like Lahiru Thirimanne, Dinesh Chandimal and Angelo, their target should be to score 35 to 40 hundreds by the time they finish," said Sangakkara, who made his 31st Test hundred on day one. "They've got the ability to do that. Thirimanne batted beautifully today and Dimuth's [dismissal] was unfortunate. Angie [Angelo] is looking really good. When you look at these younger guys, you see that they've got so much to offer Sri Lanka cricket.

"You can say there is a selfish element in getting runs and scoring hundreds, but if you keep doing that, you and your side benefit. When individuals keep pushing themselves to go beyond others, I think that's a really good atmosphere."

Sangakkara moved into tenth position on the all-time run-scoring list with his 142, surpassing Sunil Gavaskar. He had said earlier in his career that 30 hundreds and 10,000 Test runs was his career goal. He has reached both targets comfortably, but says there is still more he would like to accomplish in the game.

"Gavaskar was a fantastic batsman, and I'm very privileged to have had a career where I am able to go past him. Still I am three centuries behind him, but hopefully I can go beyond him on that count too. I'd still like more runs and more wins. I think that's what motivates all the guys who play."

Sri Lanka finished day one at 361 for 3, and Sangakkara said his side would aim to push on in the first session in day two, to set up a position from which they are unlikely to lose. Rain is unlikely to make a major impact for the remainder of the Test, but there have been short afternoon rains on each of the past three days in Galle. Sri Lanka are likely to want the game to progress quickly, to give themselves the best chance of going 1-0 up in the series.

"My idea after getting 100 was that the bowlers were tired and I wanted to get past 300. If we are able to pass 300 on day one, that makes it easier to make a declaration, after a session or so in the second day. Lahiru was batting really well, and my job was to try and accelerate and score runs quickly, so that the team was in a good position. 361 is a good score and it gives us a position to first bat one session [tomorrow], and then Angelo can decide when he wants to declare."

Sangakkara also paid tribute to Thilan Samaraweera, who retired earlier in the week after not being picked for the series. "Thilan was a magnificent servant of Sri Lankan cricket. He never had the limelight or the fame that he probably should have. I remember his debut against India - he scored almost a run-a-ball hundred, and was averaging in the 50s. Suddenly he had to stop playing cricket for two years because Aravinda de Silva made a comeback into the side. That's been the way [throughout] his career. Whenever the team wanted a shift or anything, Thilan was the easiest guy to move up or down, or in or out.

"I just hope that there will be other cricketers out there who will come in and do the kind of service that is unnoticed and unrecognised only [until] when they retire, [so they] can see what an amazing career they've had."

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Samuels returns for Zimbabwe Tests, Narine left out

Allrounder Marlon Samuels returns to the West Indies squad after a two-month injury break, having been picked for the first Test against Zimbabwe that begins on March 12. Offspinner Sunil Narine did not feature in the 13-man squad, and in his place Shane Shillingford came in.

Samuels had missed the limited-overs leg of the Zimbabwe series after picking up a facial injury during the Big Bash League, Australia's T20 competition, in January.

Fast bowler Shannon Gabriel, who debuted in the Lord's Test last year but was then sidelined by a stress reaction in his back, made a comeback. Two exclusions of note on the fast-bowling front included Ravi Rampaul and Fidel Edwards. Rampaul had returned to the domestic circuit in February after two months out due to knee trouble and had said at the time that he was "100% fit". Edwards had taken a match-haul of seven in his previous Test match - against Bangladesh in November. His last competitive match was on February 14, in the Bangladesh Premier League.

The other players to miss out from the squad that played the Bangladesh series, which was West Indies' previous Test assignment, include batsmen Kirk Edwards and Assad Fudadin.

Narine had had a poor run in that series, taking three wickets in two Tests at an average of 114.33. Twenty-three-year-old left-arm spinner Veerasammy Permaul, who had a relatively better series with eight wickets at 31.62, retained his place.

Wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin kept his role as Test vice-captain, while Chris Gayle returned after asking to skip the limited-overs series against Zimbabwe. Experienced batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan, who returned for West Indies on last month's limited-overs tour of Australia after a contentious 18-month break, was not handed a Test comeback.

West Indies and Zimbabwe will play two Tests in all, and the hosts' squad for the second Test will be named at a later date.

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Cook and Compton set base with century stand

Tea England 139 for 0 (Cook 64*, Compton 60*) and 167 trail New Zealand 460 for 9 dec (Rutherford 171, McCullum 74, Fulton 55) by 154 runs
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Eventually, England might work out why their batting invariably fails at the start of an overseas Test series. Until they do, they will be left with the sort of battles for survival that they faced against New Zealand in the first Test in Dunedin.

As they battled to right the wrongs of their first innings debacle, England's sense of mortification could hardly have been more apparent. The charge of complacency has been levelled at them from many directions, with former England captains such as Michael Vaughan and Michael Atherton prominent in their criticism. It was not a day for fripperies.

Familiarity perhaps made their task feel a little easier, especially as this time there were no mystery spinners in sight, just a willing but limited New Zealand attack.

Alastair Cook and Nick Compton, faced with a first-innings deficit of 293 and five-and-a-half sessions remaining, settled to a laborious task with equanimity. In the 54 overs by tea, their opening stand was still unbroken, 139 runs carefully gathered without much ado, their resistance on a cold and cheerless day giving the crowd another reason for forbearance.

It was Saturday, but it the mood was so workmanlike it felt like Monday morning. New Zealand's bowlers ran in eagerly, their spirits high and their lengths fuller than their English counterparts, and the captaincy of Brendon McCullum was business-like, more proactive perhaps than his predecessor, Ross Taylor, who had lost the captaincy in all forms of the game in such controversial circumstances.

But for all New Zealand's vigour, a stodgy brown surface showed no signs of deterioration. It was treacly at the start and it behaved as if it would be treacly for ever more. Cook essayed an occasional attractive drive or square cut; Compton just bedded in, his mental approach as upright as his stance, his footwork decisive but rarely expansive.

There was a hint of swing for the left-arm quick, Neil Wagner, the least accurate of New Zealand's fast-bowling trio, and when Cook squirted Bruce Martin's slow left-arm off his pads to reach his 50, there might have been a semblance of turn, but any excitement was tempered by the low bounce that made it easier to counter. Martin did nothing out of the ordinary to take four wickets in the first innings and he may never experience such largesse again.

They took time to settle. Cook, on 4, needed an inside edge to survive Tim Southee's resounding lbw appeal and New Zealand lost a review when Compton, on 16, when the same bowler appealed for a catch down the leg-side, replays suggesting that the ball had brushed his thigh pad. Wagner also found enough inswing to give Compton some uncomfortable moments.

After staving off 22 overs before lunch, they were in orderly mood throughout an attritional afternoon. That both have the temperament to bat long was not a matter for debate, but while Cook's Test record has few equals at this stage of his career, Compton was intent on proving that he has the required talent to succeed at this level.

It was all an abrupt change of tempo from New Zealand's enterprising start to the day as they added a further 58 in less than nine overs before declaring with nine down. McCullum, 44 not out from 42 balls overnight, flogged England to distraction, thrashing another 30 from 17 balls as he took toll of an increasingly disenchanted England attack.

McCullum swung Stuart Broad over deep square leg to reach his fifty, the ball sailing over two Union Jacks at the back of a temporary stand and a bus as it flew out of the ground. He then pulled and drove James Anderson for further sixes. To compound Anderson's misery, McCullum escaped potential catches by Cook, at first slip, and Compton, at deep cover, by inches before he skied Broad high to mid on where Anderson held an awkward catch.

As Broad and Anderson persisted in bowling short, McCullum's mood also rubbed off on the debutant left-arm spinner, Bruce Martin, who pulled with gusto until he was caught at the wicket for 41 off Steven Finn attempting another leg-side hit. It was an enterprising start to the day, but it was about to be replaced by a much more serious mood.

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South Africa abandon one-day experiments

Like a scientist who has decided his analysis has run its course, Gary Kirsten declared the exploratory phase for South Africa's one-day squad over as they begin preparations for their series against Pakistan.

The five-match rubber is the last outing the team will have before they travel to England for the Champions Trophy in June. From the outside it seems South Africa have much work to do if they hope to bring back ICC silverware but Kirsten is convinced they have the base from which to build and the time for trials is over.

"The players that are in this squad are the best players in the country. That's why they're selected. We're not experimenting. We're playing the best players," he said in Bloemfontein, ahead of the first ODI. "We're looking at the best 17 or 18 players knowing that we need to be able to shift and move around a bit."

The squad has three changes from the one that lost to New Zealand in January with Quinton de Kock and Dean Elgar out and Kyle Abbott in. While that hints at settling, what underlines it is the substantial difference from the Twenty20 squad that lost to Pakistan last week.

Crucially, South Africa have senior players back in the group with Graeme Smith, Hashim Amla and Dale Steyn bringing their 320 caps with them. That proved to be the biggest difference between the teams at Centurion, where Pakistan's seasoned bowling attack outclassed South Africa.

Getting the balance between old and new, especially in an era where cricket schedules are more cluttered than said scientist's work bench, is tricky. But with no Tests to think about before October, South Africa have an opportunity to do it properly.

Their selections will be questioned as selections always are but at least they have settled on something. Some will argue they should have included Richard Levi, Stephen Cook or Henry Davids, the top-three leading run-scorers in this season's one-day competition, but an opening partnership of Smith and Amla is more formidable.

Likewise, Andrew Birch, Roelof van der Merwe and Hardus Viljoen - the domestic tournament's leading wicket-takers - have had to miss out to an attack that will include Steyn, Morne Morkel, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Ryan McLaren, Robin Peterson and Aaron Phangiso. Morkel remains an injury concern having not recovered fully from the left hamstring strain that kept him out of the third Test. Kirsten envisages that he will play "at some point" but, in keeping with the way he has been managed in previous one-day games, he may be rotated.

Where question marks remain is around the middle-order but a quick scan of the statistics hint that the selectors could not have done that much better. Vaughn van Jaarsveld scored 28 more runs than Farhaan Behardien in the Momentum Cup but no-one put up their hand up high enough.

	"It's nice to have a focus on ODI cricket so we can upgrade our skills and make sure we spend as much time as we can knowing what we need to do to close games out in tight moments" Gary Kirsten

What the likes of Berhardien, David Miller and Colin Ingram need to do is harden up - particularly mentally - before players such as Quinton de Kock, Temba Bavuma and Yaseen Vallie and Cody Chetty start challenging for their places. That could be as early as next season. For now, the incumbents have to do the job and Kirsten has accepted that, knowing they failed in that regard two months ago.

Against New Zealand, South Africa's middle order was its usual wobbly marshmallow, incapable of toasting no matter how much it was held over the fire. It melted in the face of pressure, where aspects such as the death bowling also struggled. "All our preparation and our debriefing has been on the New Zealand series," Kirsten said, confining the retrospection to the shelf. "We've spoken about what went wrong there and what we could have done better. We try not cross pollinate too much. That keeps us all sane. We're spending a huge amount of focus over the next three days on making sure we get our game in order. Then we know we can put opposition teams under pressure.

"We've played a lot of Test cricket over the last while, so it's nice to have a focus on ODI cricket so we can upgrade our skills and make sure we spend as much time as we can knowing what we need to do in that version of the game to close games out in tight moments. We know we can create some momentum, and we know that with the players we've got we are able to win games in difficult situations."

That is exactly where South Africa have fallen short. They have not put the opposition under pressure often enough and they have not closed out squeaky-bum situations, never mind done so with conviction. They have floated somewhere between uncertain and unable, mostly mirroring their tactics.

Now Kirsten has said that should change. Stability will return to South Africa's one-day squad. AB de Villiers has been reinstalled as wicketkeeper and will have to find a way to manage that, his captaincy and his role in the batting line-up without feeling rushed, as he once claimed to. He will have plenty to lean on with Faf du Plessis having emerged as a competent leader himself.

The batting and bowling roles of individual players will not yo-yo from game to game and the focus has supposedly been defined and lies centrally in everyone's minds. South Africa only have five matches to show whether all those things have actually happened.

Although Kirsten remarked that they have 15-20 ODIs before their next Test (five against Pakistan; one against Holland; potentially five at the Champions Trophy if they go all the way; five against Sri Lanka; plus a few more against Pakistan in the UAE), it is not as simple as those numbers. There is an ICC tournament in between and a demanding public will want to see how far South Africa have reallyprogressed.

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Parnell, Rahul Sharma charged in recreational drugs case

South Africa allrounder Wayne Parnell's participation in IPL 2013 is in no doubt, according to his franchise Pune Warriors, despite him being one of 35 "wanted" foreign nationals for allegedly testing positive for recreational drugs following a police raid on a party in Mumbai last year. Parnell's IPL team-mate, Punjabi legspinner Rahul Sharma, who had also reportedly consumed drugs at the party, is also "supposed to join the squad as per schedule", a franchise official told ESPNcricinfo.

Parnell and Sharma were among 90 people detained following the party at a hotel in the Juhu suburb of Mumbai on May 20 last year, a day after Pune Warriors' IPL 2012 campaign ended. According to reports, drugs including cocaine, MDMA and cannabis were consumed at the party.

Of the 90 people, 86 apparently tested positive - 35 foreign nationals, who have been "shown as wanted" as per a police official, and 51 Indians. These 86 people had a 1200-page charge sheet drawn up against them last month, according to PTI.

Apart from the players' franchise, Tony Irish, the chief executive of the South Africa Cricketers' Association, also played down the issue. "Wayne has an individual agent who will deal the matter but we, as the players' association, will assist him in any way we can," Irish said. "From what we know of the facts, there is little substance to them."

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Sachin Baby, Harmeet Singh among Royals' new signings

Rajasthan Royals have announced the signing of four players for the upcoming season of the IPL: Sachin Baby, the captain of Kerala's limited-overs side, wicketkeeper Sanju Samson, Jharkhand seamer Rahul Shukla and Mumbai's left-arm spinner Harmeet Singh.

Baby, who made his first-class debut in 2009, was the fourth-highest run-getter in the recently concluded Vijay Hazare trophy, in which his century in the quarter-finals helped Kerala qualify for the final four. Though his first-class record does not stand out, he has performed well in the 15 List A games he has played in his career so far, averaging 44.72.

Eighteen-year-old Samson was signed by Kolkata Knight Riders last season, but didn't get a game. He was selected in India's Under-19 side for the Asia Cup held in Malaysia in June-July last year, and played three matches, scoring 14 runs. He was dropped for the World Cup in Australia in August. In the Ranji Trophy, he had scored 377 runs in ten innings, at 41.88, and followed it up with a tally of 222 in the Vijay Hazare trophy.

Shukla, who has played for Mumbai Indians before, took six wickets in four matches for Jharkhand in the Vijay Hazare trophy, but hasn't been a regular for the first-class side.

Harmeet, with six wickets at 20.16 in four matches, helped India win the Under-19 World Cup last year. He has so far played only five first-class games - he claimed a seven-for on debut for Mumbai in 2009 - and three List A matches in his career.

Royals will open their campaign against Delhi Daredevils on April 6 at the Feroz Shah Kotla.

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Rutherford's stunning debut builds huge lead

Tea New Zealand 385 for 7 (McCullum 35*, Martin 9*) lead England 167 by 218 runs
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Hamish Rutherford produced one of the most audacious batting debuts in Test history as New Zealand took a firm grip of the first Test in Dunedin. Rutherford's 171, the seventh highest maiden Test innings, left England trailing by 218 runs at tea on the third day of an opening Test that has shaken their sense of well-being to the core.

Rutherford achieved a century on Test debut on his home ground then showed an uncomplicated appetite for mayhem as he made England pay for their hapless batting performance on the previous day. His freewheeling innings - 217 balls, 22 fours and three sixes - came to an end against the first delivery with the second new ball when he played too early at James Anderson and spooned him tamely to square leg.

Against the first new ball, he ruled supreme. Rutherford, like his father before him, does not look the type to fret unduly about his cricket. He thrashed 90 in an extended, 35-over morning session, at one point despatching Monty Panesar's left-arm spin for two sixes in an over to sail past 150. As England watched the ball disappear into gloomy skies, they will have wished they would darken some more over the wooded hills beyond and spare them further misery.

Only Mathew Sinclair's double hundred on debut - 214 against West Indies in Wellington to wave goodbye to the old century - exceeded Rutherford among New Zealand debutants. He chased anything wide with abandon and it was the way he severed the cover region which stuck most in the memory.

Anderson rallied England with the second new ball, having Ross Taylor caught at second slip as he tried to cut and then, in his next over, bowling Dean Brownlie, whose preference for the back foot cost him dearly as he played a fullish delivery onto his stumps. Anderson should have picked up Brownlie third ball only for Joe Root to drop an inviting opportunity to his left at third slip. England's slip cordon, with Andrew Strauss retired and, in this match, Graeme Swann injured, is not what it was.

BJ Watling's misjudgement, bowled first ball as he left a delivery from Stuart Broad, gave England a third wicket in four overs, but a counterattack by Brendon McCullum and Tim Southee - who put Broad over the ropes twice before he swung and missed one - reasserted New Zealand's authority in an afternoon session in which they gambolled along at five an over.

New Zealand, who were in captaincy disarray a short time ago while England were strutting their stuff around India, must barely believe the turnaround. They lost Peter Fulton and Kane Williamson before lunch, but the mood was set by Rutherford's innings, a knock to encourage hope that he can provide them with years of sustenance - and entertainment - not just in limited-overs cricket but in all forms of the game. He made more runs than England on his own.

He was 77 not out overnight and he thrashed five more boundaries to reach his hundred, the ninth New Zealand batsman to do so on debut. He was congratulated at the non-striker's end by Williamson, who was the last New Zealand batsman to achieve the feat. Rutherford felt at home and emboldened in a genial country atmosphere; Williamson did it in Ahmedabad, which especially for a young batsman on Test debut most have felt very different.

England came out for the third morning with a new plan, bowling shorter and straighter, targeting the body with aggression. They also cranked up the verbals. Taking Steven Finn's verbals seriously is difficult for anybody who has sat through his anodyne media conferences. He sneers at the batsman like a city gent offered an unacceptable wine list at a black-tie function. Anderson is more waspish and, befitting his long experience, these days offers his most Anglo-Saxon assessments behind his hand so he cannot be lip synched.

Anderson imagined that he might have held a return catch when Rutherford was 109, but it would have been miraculous if he had intercepted a ball which whistled past him to the boundary. He booted the next ball back to the wicketkeeper

Neither New Zealand opener was perturbed by the rise in noise levels. Fulton was earthy - as stubborn and unresponsive as the treacly brown pitch on which England's quick bowlers flogged themselves to distraction; Rutherford looked more easy going, forever eager to flay the ball through the covers or, markedly in this innings, as both Finn and Anderson could testify, drive resoundingly through mid on.

Fulton's half-century on his Test comeback was a gritty affair, but his part in an opening stand of 158 was not about to steal attention away from Rutherford, who had all the best lines and who delivered them with gusto. Fulton responded to the applause for his fifty only briefly, like a man who did not want to be bothered. He got out on 55, from 169 balls, driven onto the back foot by Anderson and edging to the wicketkeeper.

Panesar's left-arm spin was unable to provide the control that England needed, Rutherford sailed past 150 as he despatched him twice over long off. If Rutherford managed to drive Panesar out of the attack, England really were in trouble. But he struck back, bowling Williamson as the batsman tried to fashion a cut against a delivery that was too straight for the shot.

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BCB to give bonuses for draws

Bangladesh have been given financial incentive to draw a Test match. According to the BCB, the team will get an extra Tk 100,000 ($1250) per drawn Test on top of the Tk 150,000 ($1875) they will receive as Test match fee, which has also increased from Tk 100,000 ($1250).

The team drew only seven games in the last 13 seasons, the last one against West Indies in 2011 when rain interrupted play considerably. Only one of Bangladesh's drawn games didn't come with the assistance of inclement weather, against Zimbabwe in 2005.

Their match fees in ODIs were also increased from Tk 60,000 ($750) to Tk 100,000 ($1250) per game, while in Twenty20s, a Bangladesh player will receive Tk 50,000 ($625) after being previously paid Tk 35,000 ($438) per game.

"The players have told me recently that their net income has decreased," BCB chief Nazmul Hassan said. "So we have increased their match fees. In addition, we feel since the team has enough ability to draw Tests, they will be paid bonuses if they can do that."

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Vettori, Patel reprimanded after drinking incident

Daniel Vettori, the former New Zealand captain, and Jeetan Patel have apologised for their conduct after a night out in Queenstown that left Patel unable to take the field for New Zealand XI during the tour match against England. While neither spinner is currently involved with the international side, confirmation of another drinking incident among its players led New Zealand Cricket to release a statement calling their behaviour "completely unacceptable".

Patel was a late call-up for the New Zealand XI, after Ish Sodhi's withdrawal, and conceded 122 runs from his 21 overs in the match without taking a wicket. He missed the second day's play, reported at the time as due to his feeling unwell, but it has since been revealed that Patel suffered mild concussion after an alleged altercation with a bouncer outside a bar the night before.

NZC said it was "deeply disappointed" with the pair. The news comes after Doug Bracewell was ruled out of the first Test with a cut foot sustained following a party at his house. Bracewell was hurt while cleaning up, although he also apologised for the incident and was "reminded of his responsibilities".

"New Zealand Cricket understands that Jeetan Patel was refused entry to a bar in Queenstown," Fairfax Media reported on Wednesday. "He subsequently fell and hit his head. Patel returned to the team hotel, felt unwell and took himself to A and E.

"Team management has spoken strongly to Patel and Vettori, telling them that their behaviour was completely unacceptable. Both players apologised to team management at the time."

Vettori has not played any cricket since the World Twenty20 and was in Queenstown to work with the New Zealand medical staff as he continues his recovery from an Achilles injury. He said: "My behaviour was completely unprofessional in going out and I should have spent time with Jeetan in another way. I would like to apologise to the NZ Cricket medical team who I was there to work with and to anyone else who is disappointed in my behaviour."

Patel returned to the Test side in Vettori's enforced absence after a strong English season with Warwickshire, where he helped them to the County Championship. He took 11 wickets in four Tests against India and Sri Lanka but was dropped following the tour of South Africa, to be replaced by the uncapped Bruce Martin. Patel, who is not centrally contracted, is understood to have been struggling since the death of his mother in January.

"I am sorry for my behaviour that evening and I accept that it was totally inappropriate for me to be out drinking during a match where I was representing my country," Patel said.

Rumours about Patel surfaced in the aftermath of Bracewell suffering his self-inflicted injury, although NZC initially refused to comment on the matter. In the build-up to the first Test, the New Zealand coach, Mike Hesson, deflected questions about an alleged drinking culture in the set-up.

"We've got really good standards in terms of the expectations we have on our players. They are also human and also spend a lot of time away from the group," Hesson said at the time. "The expectation is that what they do certainly doesn't conflict or affect their preparation and we're pretty strong on that."

Last year, Bracewell and Jesse Ryder were dropped from the ODI squad after breaking team protocol banning the consumption of alcohol. Ryder, who had a history of drink-related indiscretions, has not played for New Zealand since, having embarked on a self-imposed sabbatical from international cricket.

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