{"id":7873,"date":"2012-02-11T01:56:41","date_gmt":"2012-02-10T23:56:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/02\/cricket-new-zealand-tour-a-warm-up-for-england\/"},"modified":"2012-02-11T01:56:41","modified_gmt":"2012-02-10T23:56:41","slug":"cricket-new-zealand-tour-a-warm-up-for-england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/cricket-new-zealand-tour-a-warm-up-for-england\/","title":{"rendered":"Cricket-New Zealand tour a warm-up for England"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

By Ken Borland<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

JOHANNESBURG<\/span> Feb 10 (Reuters) – South Africa’s upcoming
\nbattles with “streetsmart” New Zealand are an important warm-up
\nfor their England tour later this year as the Proteas get there
\nearly to hone their skills, coach Gary Kirsten said on Friday.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The South Africans left Johannesburg for New Zealand on
\nFriday and will play three Twenty20 internationals, three
\none-day internationals and three tests between Feb. 17 and March
\n27.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“It’s our responsibility to do well around the world in any
\nconditions,” Kirsten told a news conference at Johannesburg
\nAirport.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“We’ve set long-term goals and this series is part of that.
\nIt’s important for our tour to England because it’s going to be
\na very competitive series. New Zealand aren’t easy to beat at
\nhome and we need to stack up performances, to play well
\nconsistently, that’s our focus.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“It will then be more of the same for the England tour. This
\nNew Zealand tour is not a standalone event. Developing
\nconsistency is not suddenly just going to come right, it’s a
\nprocess that takes time.”<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Former South Africa opener Kirsten, who won the World Cup as
\nIndia coach last year, said New Zealand’s greatest strength was
\ntheir ability to think on their feet.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“They are streetsmart and understand their conditions well,”
\nKirsten said.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“We’re purposefully going a bit earlier than usual because
\nthe guys need a lot of time in the nets. They need time to get
\nused to the pace and bounce, and they’ll have five good days of
\npractice. It is different over there, even the weather – the
\nwarmest it gets is about 21 degrees.”
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ken Borland JOHANNESBURG Feb 10 (Reuters) – South Africa’s upcoming battles with “streetsmart” New Zealand are an important warm-up for their England tour later this year as the Proteas get there early to hone their skills, coach Gary Kirsten said on Friday. The South Africans left Johannesburg for New Zealand on Friday and will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-7873","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7873\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}