What do Craig Cumming, Warren McSkimming and Derek de Boorder have in common?
They each spent summer after summer trying to win a Plunket Shield with Otago and came away with bupkis.
The Volts have enjoyed success in the one-day and T20 competitions, but the first-class trophy has remained out of reach since the 1987-88 season.
It has been three decades of torment. And if you took an objective look at coach Dion Ebrahim’s side, you would likely conclude they are much better equipped for the shorter formats again.
But Ebrahim, who is in his third year with the team, is hoping they can build on their white-ball form.
The Volts made the playoffs in both the Ford Trophy and Super Smash last summer.
But the Plunket Shield is the most demanding of the three formats and the Volts struggled, finishing last in 2022-23.
"The Plunket Shield has been a challenge," Ebrahim said.
"It has been 35 years since an Otago team has won, so [those struggles] are not unique to this team or our coaching staff.
"It has been a challenge for decades and it is a format that we are really keen to understand how we can play better.
"We’ve got some plans in place and we are hoping to make big strides. We showed last season we are comfortable with the way we play white-ball cricket; now it is a chance to do that in red-ball cricket.
"But, the reality is, to win the Plunket Shield you’ve got to have three or four batsmen standing up and being among the leading scorers.
"We also need all of our bowlers to be able to do their job effectively."
That last point could be an issue. The Volts suffered some setbacks during the offseason.
The two Michaels — Michael Rae and Michael Rippon — transferred to Canterbury.
It is a blow, obviously. But Ebrahim said it was not unexpected.
Rae had moved to Christchurch with his family and Rippon wanted to make a change to see if he could wring more out of his career in Canterbury.
"We had plans in terms of succession planning," Ebrahim said in a nod to left-arm spinner Ben Lockrose.
"He’ll take the helm as the No 1 spinner, and we’ve got Ollie White who has come on as well as a spinning all-rounder. And there is Luke Georgeson, who provides us with a seam option.
"So we are comfortable that the squad we’ve put together are as strong, if not stronger, than what we’ve had in previous years."
That said, the Volts have not been able to find a like-for-like replacement for Rae. Georgeson is more of a fourth seamer and top-order batter.
Rae was a strike bowler who brought a lot of energy to the bowling unit and he will be missed.
"He does have a point of difference ... but Michael Rae and Jacob Duffy have not played together as often as people might think, so the successes we’ve had have been with one of them."
Otago will lean heavily on Duffy again and look to extract more from the likes of Travis Muller, Jarrod McKay and Andrew Hazeldine.
Matthew Bacon has been limited to white-ball cricket for the past three years. But he might have to step up as well because the seaming stocks will be stretched.
Otago’s batting unit looks promising. Dean Foxcroft (631 at 45.07) and Thorn Parkes (529 at 37.78) led the way for the Volts in 2022-23.
Black Cap Glenn Phillips scored 347 runs at 69.40 in three games and will be a big asset whenever he is available.
Hamish Rutherford had a lean season (180 at 12.85) but remains an important player in the top order, while Dale Phillips (451 at 32.21), Max Chu (401 at 30.84) and Jacob Cumming (254 at 28.22) are very capable as well.
But generally, Otago has relied too heavily on too few and it has not been a recipe for success.
It was time for some of the other players to step out from the shadows of the likes of Rutherford and Duffy and make their own impact, Ebrahim said.
- See Friday’s edition for our annual Summer of Cricket preview.
