The Star: November 08, 2018

The Star Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi
Thursday November 8 2018 39
Sport
Veterans back on world cricket stage
Kember,
Nuttall part
of over-50s
World Cup
• By Gordon Findlater
THREE DECADES on from
representing New Zealand at
the inaugural under-19 Cricket
World Cup, Hamish Kember will
play for his country in another
first time World Cup.
Kember, 50, will travel to
Sydney later this month as part
of the New Zealand team to
compete at the inaugural over-
50s Cricket World Cup.
Kember represented New
Zealand at the inaugural
under-19 World Cup in 1988 in
Australia.
In that tournament he played
in the same side as Lee Germon,
who captained the side; Chris
Cairns; and Andrew Caddick,
who played for New Zealand at
age group level before going on
to represent England.
“It will be really awesome. I’m
looking forward to book-ending
my career with highlights in
Australia,” said Kember.
The 1988 tournament also
featured the likes of Brian Lara,
Inzamam-ul-Haq and Sanath
Jayasuriya.
With his left-arm orthodox
bowling, Kember has taken
about 500 wickets at premier
level for Burnside West and
more than 700 across all grades.
In the one-day format, he had
an economy rate of 2.3 over
his career and could frustrate
bowlers with his lower-order
batting.
He made his first-class debut
in 1991 for New Zealand
Emerging Players against Sri
Lanka. Kember went on to make
13 appearances for Canterbury
in both list A and first class
formats.
BATTLERS: Hamish Kember and Andrew Nuttall will represent New Zealand at the inaugural over-50 Cricket World Cup. ​
“The other left-arm spinner in
the Canterbury side at the time
was a fellow by the name of Mark
Preist so I was often a back-up,”
said Kember.
At the over-50s Cricket World
Cup, New Zealand will play a
round-robin match against the
seven other competing nations –
Australia, England, Pakistan, Sri
Lanka, South Africa, Wales and
Canada.
The tournament will then have
semi-finals and a final.
“I’m a wiser cricketer and a
much more confident cricketer
now, but I wouldn’t say I’m a
better cricketer than I was 30
years ago.”
Kember has now been playing
presidents grade for the past nine
years. After being selected in the
New Zealand over-50s team in
April, he has also had to return
to spin bowling after making a
brief change in style.
“We’ve had a few veterans in
the club team that aren’t that
great at catching off my spin
bowling. I got frustrated one day
and decided to take a longer run
up and bowl medium pacers and
I’ve been bowling that since, so
this season I’ve had to go back
to spin to re-focus myself for the
tournament.”
Kember believes one of
the keys to success at the
tournament, which runs
from November 20 to December
5, will be preserving bodies
over the high volume of
cricket.
They play up to nine games
over the two weeks.
“We’ve got a physiotherapist
sponsoring us, so she’s got a
team of three to make sure our
bodies come through okay . . . I’d
say they’ll be very well used.”
Kember will be joined by
fellow Canterbury players Brent
Fleming, Craig Gibb and the
oldest player in the New Zealand
side, Andrew Nuttall, 61.
“I’ve probably lost four
kilograms in the past few
months getting ready for this
things,” said Nuttall, who
played 19 first class games for
Canterbury.
“I’ve been doing Pilates and
some yoga to help with the
flexibility.”