Otago cricket coach, and former New Zealand captain and two-times national coach, Glenn Turner is keen to see his region develop a wider base of talent to create competition for places in the Otago side.

One of the main reasons for this has been the development of indoor facilities in Dunedin that have allowed Otago players considerably more time than has been previously available to work on their cricket skills in the off season.

"We've had 14 practices already this year and our indoor centre allows bowlers to have run-ups of up to 20 metres. The facilities are good with a soft material in the surface that allows bowlers to run in without getting sore," he said.

While many of the players who have to make use of the facilities are not in the top core of players, because many of the top players are overseas, they are getting valuable training to provide a back-up in the event of injuries or unavailabilities.

"We have four young batters showing some promise and we have quite a number of seamers," he said.

The situation was competitive.

Efforts have also been made to get as much cricket on grass before the onset of the domestic cricket competition.

Otago, the southernmost first-class cricket association in the world, has always been at a disadvantage in terms of preparation and doesn't usually have club cricket on grass until after Christmas.

Otago's campaign started two weeks ago with a two-day game on grass in Alexandra and with the latest four days of games at the NZC High Performance Centre played in what have been superb conditions at Lincoln University.

All of which is a significant boost for the side.

However, Turner has been sending four Dunedin-based players to Oamaru for match play on grass. It didn't make any sense for a bowler like James McMillan to come running in to pound his legs on artificial pitches, he said.

A bowler like Richard Quirk had one over last year before Christmas. He too, has gone to Oamaru to play as have David Sewell and Shoruban Pasupati.

Otago had 10 players overseas or out of town during the winter and Turner has been using the practice games to pull all the strings of the side together.

Spin bowling is also an area Otago is looking to develop. Nathan Morland has been in plenty of work over the winter while Academy player Nathan McCullum and Scott Waide are shaping as useful off-spin contenders while Richard Quirk, a leg-spinner, is also being encouraged to develop his particular skills.

From his own point of view Turner was keen to see much more use made of sports medicine information, and to see that information driven by coaches.

"There is a lot of intelligence around the game and it needs to be used and I would like to see a change in attitudes so that people can get together to progress things. Two heads are better than one on issues, rather than patch protection occurring," he said.

Turner said he believed in the empowerment theory for players and always had done, but at the same time there had to be some things that were non-negotiable.

Otago was in good shape administratively with Graeme Elliott a skilled administrator and a good back-up coaching staff in place.

The loss of players to international status, and moving away from the region, has left Otago facing a big challenge this year but by looking to develop local players, Turner has provided plenty of incentive for the next generation of representative players.

© CricInfo