The Steel - home of the long white injury cloud. Three players remain in doubt for the Steel's opening ANZ Championship match against the Northern Mystics in Auckland on Valentine's Day.
Sometimes you are only as good as the players around you.
Otago left-armer Craig Smith has usually watched the big games from the sidelines but hopes to break with tradition tomorrow.
The Black Caps have lost 14 of their last 15 completed one-day games. That is hardly encouraging with the World Cup starting in just two weeks. Cricket writer Adrian Seconi has identified five key areas which are letting the national side down.
Some players made a point or two but the teams had to share the honours.
There was time for only 20 minutes of cricket during the abandoned one-day international in Queenstown yesterday but it took national selector Glenn Turner almost that long to explain some of the changes to the Black Caps.
Otago's latest captain, Aaron Redmond, has a perfect record and he would like to keep it that way.
Experienced point guard Luke Martin could be playing his basketball for the Otago Nuggets this season.
Otago will host Northern Districts in a sudden-death playoff game in Queenstown on Sunday but came within five runs of a pesky trip north.
Steel fans can breathe a sigh of relief.
Best-case scenario - Otago could finish the round-robin stage on top of the competition table and secure a home venue for the preliminary finals.
Steel co-captain Wendy Frew chose her words carefully, but even a crafted response could not hide some genuine concern.
The Queensland Firebirds are doing what they can to help lift people's spirits following recent devastating floods in the state.
If you learn more from a loss than a win then the Steel camp had a pretty successful weekend.
Former Silver Fern Donna Wilkins has no regrets about severing ties with the Steel and is looking forward to playing for Canterbury for the first time in more than a decade.
The novice Steel supporter would have been searching around for the panic button yesterday.
There is only one thing worse than getting a bad call from the umpire, and that is getting a completely different call for the same thing when you are on the other side of the ditch or at the other end of the court.
Otago will be close to full strength with captain Craig Cumming and strike bowler Neil Wagner returning from injury for the one-day game against Northern Districts in Whangarei today.
Three washouts in nine games is not a great advertisement for the Queenstown Events Centre.
New Zealand and Otago offspinner Nathan McCullum must be wondering what on earth he did wrong.
