Scott Styris has taken an unusual route to recovering his place in the CLEAR Black Caps one-day team.

The Northern Districts all-rounder left today for Sydney where he will play the first five weeks of the Sydney grade competition for Gordon.

ND operations manager Pat Malcon said today that the spot in Sydney had been arranged very quickly over the last week.

"Scott thought Sydney's competition starts a month before we start playing cricket in New Zealand and felt that if he wants to start the season firing he should take the chance," he said.

Former New Zealand coach Steve Rixon had helped set up the chance for Styris who is recovering from knee surgery to an injury which forced him out of the national side midway through last summer.

"It is a unique way of preparing, but it will give him a good chance to try it out," Malcon said.

There is also a chance that long-serving ND bowler Alex Tait may have a delayed start to the summer.

He is in with a chance of selection for the Northland golf team for the national amateur inter-provincial golf tournament, the Tower-sponsored event, which is played in late-November and if selected for the golf team he won't be available for ND until the one-day series after Christmas.

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