Rutherford takes reins at Albion

Dunedin premier club cricket resumes tomorrow. 

Albion are in good hands in the Dunedin premier club competition this summer.

Former Otago and Black Caps opener Hamish Rutherford will coach the team.

He is not the only familiar name coaching in the premier grade.

Former Otago player and coach Vaughn Johnson is back for another season with Taieri.

Former Volts keeper Derek de Boorder is still involved with North East Valley, who are chasing a third consecutive title.

Volts players Dale Phillips and Andrew Hazeldine are teaming up to coach University-Grange, and Otago gloveman Max Chu has the reins at CDK.

Phillips, Hazeldine and Chu might not be too hands-on given their playing schedule.

But club cricket is well-served with so many elite cricketers giving up their time to help out at the grassroots level.

Rutherford, who retired in January after 15 years at the top level, said his motivation came from wanting to help develop young players and also help Albion win.

"Ultimately I want to try and help Albion win the Bing Harris," he said.

"But there's a couple of younger players coming through, so hopefully I can maybe assist them in some way in their journey in cricket."

One of those young players is 16-year-old Hugo Bogue, of Queenstown.

He is one of the most exciting talents to emerge from the region in many a year. In five games for the Eagles last season, Bogue scored 221 runs at an average of 73.67. He notched his maiden century as well.

Mason Clarke and Lahiru Vimukthi are other young players with a lot of potential.

"If I can help those guys progress through the ranks then, yeah, that'll obviously be quite satisfying."

Rutherford scored 5207 first-class runs for Otago. Only three other players have scored more runs for the province in the red-ball format.

He also went on to play 16 tests, four ODIs and eight T20s for his country.

His test debut was one of the more memorable debuts. He flayed 171 against England at the University Oval in 2013.

At his peak, he was one of the most destructive list A players on the New Zealand domestic circuit.

Now his challenge is to find the next player from Otago with his sense of easy timing.

Cricket has a "strange pull" on him. His father, Ken, also played for New Zealand, and his uncle, Ian, played for Otago.

"I think probably since as early as I can remember I've wanted to play cricket and be involved in cricket, so I suppose there's this sort of innate drag back to the game, which is maybe hard to explain.

"I guess from my perspective, I don't know where coaching is going to lead.

"As long as I'm enjoying it, I'll keep doing it. But do I want to move into coaching fulltime? Probably not.

"I'm really enjoying my time in the corporate world outside of the cricket bubble."

Taylor Cumberland will captain Albion, and he was consistent with the bat last season.

The Eagles have lost the services of Josh Tasman-Jones, who scored a lot of runs for the team but left-armer Tommy Clout (40 wkts at 14.53) is back for another stint and he was the best bowler in the competition last season.

James Brown took 29 wickets at 18.14 and is another important player in the lineup. Vimukthi (36 for 12.61) has transferred from University-Grange which means Albion has the three most successful wicket-takers from last season in their lineup.

North East Valley have set the benchmark in the past two seasons.

Skipper Hunter Kindley was the leading scorer in the competition. He collected 488 runs at an average of 32.53 and also nabbed 28 wickets at 16.64.

He was named Dunedin premier grade player of the year for his efforts and shapes as a key plank again.

Seamer Kaleb McKay was the third-equal leading wicket-taker with 29 wickets at 16.9, and all-rounder Jeremy Smith is another quality player they will lean on throughout the season.

Green Island captain Brad Kneebone had a good season with the bat. His 455 runs at an average of 35 helped the Swamp Rats claw their way to second. They have picked up Yuvraj Singh Khara from CDK and he made a strong impression for the Hounds in 10 games.

But they have lost spinner Jack Mockford, who was their leading wicket-taker in 2023-24.

Taieri boast a quality bowling lineup as well. Kyle Hastie (28 at 13.46), Regan Flaws (24 at 17) and Beckham Wheeler-Greenall (18 at 16.61) claimed 70 wickets between them.

Wheeler-Greenall will captain the side and he was one of only five players to score more then 400 runs last season.

University-Grange will lean on newly contracted Volts all-rounder Zac Cumming and reliable batter Daniel Kibby to help them claw their way up the competition standings.

Left-armer Thomas O'Connor will captain CDK and spearhead the attack. And the Hounds have picked up Albion batter Lucky Singh, who will bolster their squad.