Cricket's recent history is littered with match fixing scandals, but BlackCaps captain Brendon McCullum believes the sport has cleaned up its act.
“There's obviously been some corruption in our sport in the last little while and I think that the penalties that have been imposed on the people involved were accurate, and that should serve for people who are uncertain on which way to go morally,” says McCullum.
Those sentiments were shared by England Twenty20 captain Stuart Broad – not that he's a likely candidate for illegal bookies.
“They'd be a bit daft to approach me considering my old man works for the ICC,” he says.
Both captains have ingested the doping side of Australia’s sporting crisis with interest.
“From our point of view we know what we can and can't take, and what's unfolding over there is obviously pretty disappointing,” says McCullum.
And the hunt for dopers makes life off the field for international cricketers much more complicated.
“If we have a cold we have to run things past our doctor, and we're drug tested all the time. We had drug testers turn up at our hotel doors yesterday,” says Broad.
“Sometimes ten o'clock at night in the middle of winter you get a knock on the door,” says McCullum.
Auckland’s Eden Park hosts the tour opener tomorrow.
They've played one T20 at Eden Park in 2008, but that was before the ground's redevelopment for the Rugby World Cup.
“Spin’s actually done pretty well here. While there's short boundaries straight there's still a decent size on those boundaries square,” says McCullum.
Broad says bowlers will have to adapt to the ground’s shape.
“Obviously quite small boundaries so the bowlers will have to be a little bit wide and clever.”
The BlackCaps will have to be smart too, if they're to earn only their second T20 win over the tourists.
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source: newshub archive
