Black Caps could get together next week for squad session

New Zealand's leading players are likely to get together for two days next week to begin their build-up to the forthcoming international season.

Yesterday's resolution of the cricket players' strike has resulted in TelstraClear Black Caps coach Denis Aberhart re-shaping his intended programme for this time of the season.

Aberhart and the other national selectors Sir Richard Hadlee (convener), Ross Dykes and Brian McKechnie are hopeful of getting the national squad together next week for a couple of days to re-focus where the side is heading, both for the National Bank Indian series and for the World Cup.

"We've been doing some planning so we can work our way around all the first-class sides," Aberhart told CricInfo today.

The players may have been on strike, but the selectors hadn't and they had been working on aspects of the season ahead.

However, it was a difficult task when it wasn't possible to work directly with players on specific tasks, especially the captain of the side.

"We have ideas and thinking that we need the players' comments on," he said.

Aberhart hoped the players had been working on their individual programmes despite all the upheaval that has occurred and the get-together would allow a check-up on where the players were at.

With the Indians arriving for their tour opener, a Super Max International against New Zealand at Jade Stadium on December 4, time has become of the essence.

The actual Max side might normally have been expected to have come from the players who excelled at the State Max tournament that was originally scheduled for this weekend in Auckland, however that was one of the victims of the New Zealand Cricket Players' Association's failure to accept New Zealand Cricket's final offer which resulted in NZC cancelling the tournament.

Rather than expose their prospective Test players to the Indians in that atmosphere, the Super Max combination may well be a New Zealand A selection with the emphasis on one-day skills.

There is at least a little more time to observe players in match situations with two rounds of the State Championship available before the team needs to assemble in Wellington for the first Test match which starts on December 12.