Sport - Cricket

Ditch Super Sub rule: Fleming

SYDNEY: New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming will ask West Indies skipper Shivnarine Chanderpaul to agree to ditch the `super-sub' rule for their five-match one-day series starting in Wellington on Saturday.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) announced on Thursday the experimental rule would be scrapped from March.

Fleming said that while it made sense to start playing without the rule as soon as possible, he wanted to discuss the issue first with Chanderpaul and the match officials.

"I'm not sure how it would wash but we have to look at the options," he was quoted as saying by New Zealand Press Association.

"It's very much commonsense. If it did take place it seems strange, especially from the West Indies' point of view of learning how to play it and then having to scrap it doesn't make a lot of sense."

Saturday's match is the first of five one-dayers between New Zealand and West Indies. They will also play a three match Test series in March.

Kiwis favourite

New Zealand is slight favourite to win the one-day series, due in large part due to the absence of West Indies world record holder Brian Lara, but both teams say it will be a close series.

"They certainly have enough depth to compete and win this series. I don't think they should be written off," Fleming said. "A team that is wounded, or talked about like that can be dangerous."

Chanderpaul said the Twenty20 match had given his players renewed confidence. "I think everybody looks at us as the underdogs, but we know what cricket we can play and hopefully we can play some really good cricket on this tour,'' he said. — Reuters

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