Auckland Aces Announce 22 Man Squad For Champions League

The Auckland Aces have announced a 22 man training squad to prepare for the Champions League in September.

The squad follows on from the group of 26 that was announced earlier in the winter and is a pre-cursor to the final list of 15 that will be named on 15 August.

Initially the squad was to have been 20 players but with three members of the squad - Andre Adams, Jimmy Adams and Lou Vincent - still involved in the English twenty20 competition Auckland Cricket has negotiated with NZCPA to add two names to cover the potential unavailability of one or more of those players.

A number of the squad have been in training for some time but this announcement heralds the commencement of the more intensive build-up as the Aces prepare for the Champions League T20.

Aces coach Paul Strang stressed that now was when the hard work really started, saying: "We've basically got just over six weeks to the qualifying tournament and we're in the middle of winter so it's no easy task to get the team at peak performance for September. But we've been working hard with the guys here and overseas to try to make sure that we're well and truly ready for the Kolkatta Knight Riders on the 19th September."

The four players to drop out from the initial squad of 26 are Andrew de Boorder, Craig Cachopa, Lance Shaw and Greg Todd.

The full list of 22 is as follows:
Gareth Hopkins (captain) (Parnell)
Andre Adams (Overseas professional)
Jimmy Adams (Overseas professional)
Michael Bates (Suburbs New Lynn)
Brad Cachopa (Takapuna)
Martin Guptill (Suburbs New Lynn)
Colin de Grandhomme (Howick Pakuranga)
Dusan Hakaraia (Waitakere City)
Ronnie Hira (North Shore)
Anaru Kitchen (Waitakere City)
Tim McIntosh (Parnell)
Bruce Martin (Parnell)
Chris Martin (Parnell)
Kyle Mills (Howick Pakuranga)
Colin Munro (Howick Pakuranga)
Jimmy Neesham (Suburbs New Lynn)
Rob Quiney (Overseas professional)
Jeet Raval (Suburbs New Lynn)
Gareth Shaw (Papatoetoe)
Bhupinder Singh (Papatoetoe)
Daryl Tuffey (Suburbs New Lynn)
Lou Vincent (Overseas professional)

Contacts: Paul Strang 021 840 877
See http://www.aucklandcricket.co.nz for more information.