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Guy Heveldt: Blackcaps waste golden opportunity to test fresh talent against Sri Lanka
Guy Heveldt • January 20th, 2025 5:00 pm
Photo: DJ Mills/Photosport
I love summer. It’s the best season of the year. The sun, the beach, the best horses are racing in some of our best races and of course, there’s cricket.
But one thing grated me about cricket this season and it’s to do with a player who’s yet to even play for the Blackcaps - one who needs to be given his chance.
I speak of a 22-year-old who I genuinely believe could play a massive part in taking the Blackcaps to the future.
His name is Bevon Jacobs.
I was fortunate to be in the television commentary when he made his domestic T20 debut at the Eden Park Outer Oval late 2023. I was there with people like Mark Richardson and Grant Elliott - and, like me, they were incredibly impressed by what they saw.
At the time, playing for Canterbury, he sent the Auckland bowlers all over the park.
A big, tall lad with long levers, he could take most deliveries and do something with it, usually find the boundary or, on quite a few occasions, send it over the boundary.
He scored 42 off 20 that day. And he’s continued to produce innings like that on a regular basis since. He’s a potential game-changer in the middle order.
Some people I’ve spoken to have labelled him the cleanest hitter they’ve seen.
Photo: Marty Melville/Photosport
Which brings me to this: why was he selected in the Blackcaps T20 squad against Sri Lanka, but never even played a game?
It feels like a waste of a golden opportunity to blood a young, exciting talent, in a series that didn’t really mean a lot. Especially once the series was wrapped up 2-0 and the third game was a dead rubber.
Their argument would be he was on the squad to gain experience. I get that. But how much experience would he have gained by actually playing in a match, in front of home fans and in a setting that he’d be comfortable with?
It feels like the future for this Blackcaps side is going to be a bit tougher than the glory years we’re just coming out of - which is why it felt like such a missed opportunity to have Bevon Jacobs just running the drinks.
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