As someone who harboured childhood dreams of being an All Black or a Black Cap it was always re-assuring when I would look at the birthdays of players and see that there was still someone older than me in the team. I still had a chance. For several years I willed Dave Hewett to be picked in All Black squads. Sadly, at 38 these days are gone. Perhaps I need to re-focus on the Lawn Bowls team for the Commonwealth Games.

In any case this comes to mind as I thumbed through New Zealand Cricket’s glossy magazine previewing the year. The birthdates for our bowling attack give an old fella some hope.

Chris Martin-1974, Darryl Tuffey-1978, Shane Bond-1974, Jacob Oram-1978, James Franklin-1980, Daniel Vettori-1979, Kyle Mills-1979, Jeetan Patel-1980, Iain O’Brien-1976, Tim Southee-1988

Bond and O’Brien have already gone (from tests at least in Bond’s case), but only Franklin, Patel and Southee are under 30, and Franklin and Patel will both pass that mark by the end of next year. Through age and on-going injury almost all of the list could be gone in the next year or two.

There is a desperate need to bring through some young talent and have them playing at international level on a regular basis. If we end up with all of the above going in one hit we will struggle to bowl any international team out. I know there are some good young bowlers out there (I saw Corey Anderson at the Basin Reserve on Sunday and he looks good) but waiting any longer will leave them horribly exposed when they are called up.

Otherwise, I will put my hand up to roll down a few medium pacers. That is if my back holds out.