Llorne Howell - Sports blogger Former cricket international for the Black Caps, Llorne Howell, gives his views on New Zealand's number one summer sport, both for the Bay and the national team.

Four players who have spent the last five years training under John Howell at the Howell Academy dominated the match between TBC and Cadets at the domain on Saturday.
John Howell was the director of coaching at NZ Cricket for 19 years and took over the academy in Te Puna six years ago when it was not able to be sold off.

Since then he has developed the facilities and coaching programme and had a huge number of schools and individuals through the centre. Auckland and Hamilton schools have particularly used the facilities. Young coaches from England have used it as a way to increase their knowledge under such an experienced mentor. Various top Bay players have utilised it, namely Trent and Jono Boult.
Joe Carter and Elliot Timoti opened the innings against a strong Cadets side and looked very comfortable. Years of being given points for leaving balls outside off stump and being taught how to stay side on proved fruitful as they chose the correct balls to leave or to hit. Elliot scored a fine 50 with some classy shots through the leg and off sides. He got to his 50 first. Joe Carter then stepped up his aggression with some good shots off Jono Boult and Ben Christenson.
After being 100/1 Cadets came back into the match and held TBC to 211 as the wicket slowed.
Cadets' chase began badly as another of the Howell Academy stalwarts dominated the early proceedings. Sean Davies bowled with great accuracy and swing making it hard for the batsmen including Jono Boult.
"I was just waiting for a ball to smash, but none came," says Jono.
Ben Christenson holed out to mid-off in an attempt to break Sean Davies' length and then Jono Boult fell driving to a Roger McBride outswinger.
Campbell Thomas came on at first change and like Sean Davies bowled with great accuracy for a young player. Their middle overs accuracy on a wearing wicket completely dominated Cadets. He is another of the group who has trained most Friday nights under John and also weekends in spare time at the academy. Elliot Timoti bowled at the other end and the two together strangled the innings after the tight start by Sean Davies and Roger McBride.
The captaincy of former tennis player Brett Hampton was also right on the mark which was pretty special given he has not had as much cricket as other players. Cadets were bowled out for 140 in the end.
What this match showed was the value of the academy and good coaching. Sean Davies and Campbell Thomas both had great rhythm and added to that accuracy. Top seam bowling coaches are very hard to come by and like Lance Cairns in Poverty Bay, John Howell has got the most out of these young men. John was a seamer for CD in the days when they played three or four matches a season and a lot of cricket for Hawke's Bay. He has worked with these young guys for years with simple points on their technique.
It shows the value of having a facility where talented young cricketers can train together at a high level under a good coach or in their free time while also having John looking out and saying, "Lift that front arm young man!"
Bad habits are nipped in the bud before they begin. The worst thing you can do if you want to improve is to play or train against players who are not that good or you train hard with ineffective methods – hence developing habits you one day have to change.
Tennis in NZ this is a classic example. Our young guys and girls are just as good but to keep improving by playing equal or better players they need to get to the USA or Europe. This is very costly so much of our talent misses the boat.
These little hubs of excellence can produce good results. I was at Christchurch Boys' (five times winner of Gillete Cup) and we had a similar hub. Good cricketers train together and get better through competing with and against each other. I used to face Chris Cairns in the nets, normally off 18 yards as he enjoyed bowling at my head. Lee Germon (captain – CBHS) would be there running things with another former Black Cap in Blair Hartland. Geoff Allot also used to steam in, but was not quite as quick as Cairnsy at that stage of his career. Chris Martin was there at the end and was quite nippy. He got quicker and more accurate when he decided to really give cricket a crack later on. Still he was quicker at school than anything in the Bay apart from Te Ahu Davis. In my first first class match, Neil Mallender bowled me five bouncers in a row. I have to say I found it quite slow after facing Cairnsy in the dry quick CBHS nets off 18 yards. This is the value of training with other talented players at a place like the academy or CBHS. When you get to the real thing it is more of a natural progression. You can see this with Aussie state cricketers and NZ provincial rugby players. When they step up they are used to the heat.
I know one of Kane Williamson's biggest desires was to have a bowler in club cricket, school or under age team who could really wang it down at him. He just felt he could not progress as much facing average military mediums all the time. A wholes days' cricket scoring a hundred against average seamers would have far less value than a 20 minute net against Allot and Cairns trying to knock your block off.