John Bracewell is eager to see the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy become ‘a tradition’ between the BLACKCAPS and Australia.
The trans-Tasman encounter began last season, when the sides drew a memorable inaugural series after the weather wiped out the deciding match.
Bracewell wants to see the tournament, now an annual fixture on the calendar, remain there.
As ever, he is determined to put one over the BLACKCAPS’ nearest rivals.
He told “The Chappell-Hadlee is of importance to us.
“It’s something both countries are keen on doing we’re keen on building up a tradition. That’s important.
“To start that tradition, there was probably no better result than 1-1 last year, with both games being so tight and tightly contested.
“In order to maintain that sort of interest, so too do these games.”
The BLACKCAPS coach was also happy this year’s event was taking place in home soil.
However, he reminded his side that despite home-field advantage, they remain underdogs.
“To have three games at home rather than three games away as last year is something our guys look forward to," he added.
“They always look forward to playing Australia, so it’s important we get back into cricket after being beaten by South Africa and it’s important to get the team back into its rhythm in our game.
“We play a lot of one-day cricket and you can lose that rhythm quite quickly, but so can you regain it and we need to regain it as soon as possible, because this tournament’s over in a week.
“They need to be tough and competitive, but we’re the ones who need to step up to the mark. Australia are ahead of us. We’re the team who have to dig deep.
“It’s up to us to lift our standard to them’. They’ve set the marker and we’ve got to reach it.”
for ticket information for the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy series.
