Special moments await in new season's Ford Trophy

Posted Thursday, 23 October, 2025 in Domestic News

2025/26

When the new season’s Ford Trophy begins this Saturday in New Plymouth, Auckland and Christchurch, a number of leading players will be one step closer to an uncommon milestone.

Currently on BLACKCAPS duty, Michael Bracewell won’t be suiting up again for the Wellington Firebirds just yet, but the national men’s competition begins with the big spinning allrounder in a club of his own as the only active player to have played 100 matches.

He’ll be ticking off match number 106 the next time he takes the field in The Ford Trophy, but a number of the country’s most experienced and influential practitioners are set to join him this season.

Like Bracewell, they’ve all represented more than one team over their careers:

Jeet Raval 96 appearances Northern Districts, previously Central Stags, Auckland Aces
Cam Fletcher 95 Auckland Aces, previously Northern Districts, Canterbury
Logan van Beek 93 Wellington Firebirds, previously Canterbury
Robbie O'Donnell 90 Northern Districts, previously Auckland Aces
Scott Kuggeleijn 90 Northern Districts, previously Wellington Firebirds

That vat of experience can make the difference between a win and a loss for their team, while inside the walls of the team rooms they contribute leading role in preparations and mindset for each match, helping instil confidence in younger players.

Bracewell still thinks back to his first season when, as a 19-year-old batter, the Otago senior players helped build that confidence.

Otago legend Neil Broom was one of the early adopters bringing T20 skills into the one-day arena | PHOTOSPORT

“I was lucky to play alongside some quality batters early in my career for Otago,” he recalls.

“It was great to learn a lot from the older batting core of Craig Cumming, Aaron Redmond and Neil Broom. They encouraged me to play my natural game, and be positive.

“Neil was a player I really admired in the one-day format. He had a great tempo in one-day cricket and scored a lot of hundreds. He was also very strong in the gym so pushed the professionalism off the field, too.”

Bracewell made his debut for Otago against Wellington in January 2011.

A young Michael Bracewell bats for Otago in 2011 | PHOTOSPORT

“I remember facing Mark Gillespie who was bowling very well. The next game I faced Hamish Bennett bowling with a strong breeze behind him in Queenstown! Still one of the quicker spells I have faced.”

While there are now only six other players still active in the competition from that debut season (including Raval, and Michael’s CD cousin Doug Bracewell), many others remain involved in the game as umpires (Brad Wilson), local or international coaches (think Peter Fulton, BJ Watling, Tarun Nethula, Rob Nicol, James Franklin, Andre Adams, Jeetan Patel and more) or as NZC staff (the likes of Jacob Oram and Graeme Aldridge).

In the intervening decade and a half, they’ve all witnessed an evolution of the one-day game with the influence of T20 evident in modern shot selection and tactics.

Says Bracewell, “One-day games have come a long way since I started playing. Batters can now attack for most of the game. Scores of 400 are becoming more and more common which you wouldn’t have dreamed of when I started.”

But even in this age of short format saturation, players have a special affection for The Ford Trophy, and one-day cricket in general, as a test of all-round skills and tactics.

“One-day cricket is a great test of all the skills of a cricketer. You need to be able to work the ball around attack when required, and also, as a bowler, you need to be able to attack and defend with the ball.”

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Ask him what his favourite cricketing memories are, and they still include winning The Ford Trophy with the Wellington Firebirds in the 2018/19 season under Bennett, “and the best final I watched on TV was when Brendon McCullum smashed 170 [off 108 balls] in the 2008 final at Eden Park, and Otago chased down the score in about 40 overs.”

Within just a few years he would be playing for the team himself, and when Bracewell eventually left Otago, it inevitably came with mixed emotions: “I was excited about the opportunity of playing for Wellington. On the other hand, I had grown up in Dunedin so playing for Otago was very special to me. Whenever you leave home, it comes with mixed emotions.”

Those years and youthful experience still carry a lot of meaning for him as a cricketer, infuencing what he now brings to captaincy or leading as a senior player.

“You get inspired by leaders, want to emulate the way they made you feel and instil the same confidence in the players you’re captaining.”

His Wellington Firebirds - now one of the leading suppliers of the country’s BLACKCAPS, will have talked plenty about what they need to do to get back into the top half of the table this summer.

Only the top three teams proceed to Elimination and Grand Finals that will both be held at his home ground, the Cello Basin Reserve, on Friday 20 and Sunday 22 February 2026.

“The team has been working hard in preseason, and think they will go really well this year,” says Bracewell.

“We’ve learned a lot from last year and all the players will be hungry to be fighting for a trophy — in all three formats.”