An early hint of the battle to be fought over the opening position for New Zealand this summer has been given in the selection of the New Zealand A side to play in next month's Buchi Babu tournament in India.

One of the openers, Matthew Bell of Wellington, has been named captain of the side and he will be fighting for the opener's job with Matthew Horne, who had to relinquish his place last summer when firstly breaking his hand and then suffering a virus, and the star batsman of last summer, Mark Richardson.

The New Zealand connection with the tournament started last year when an Academy selection was taken to the event and reached the semi-finals. The effort was good enough for India to invite New Zealand back to take part in what is a pre-season three-day match tournament of teams representing various Indian corporations.

The tournament has provided a perfect chance for the national selectors to provide back-up cricket for players on the fringe of national selection, and all but one of the players, Joseph Yovich, have played for New Zealand.

Selection chairman Sir Richard Hadlee said: "A number of bowlers might have been included - Shayne O'Connor, Chris Martin, Kerry Walmsley, Andrew Penn to name a few.

"The selection panel has opted to continue the development of a player like Kyle Mills, to include players from injury such as Scott Styris and Chris Drum, and to expose a young player in Joseph Yovich to Indian conditions."

The team for the tournament is: Matthew Bell (captain-Wellington), Mark Richardson (Otago), Matthew Horne (Otago), Lou Vincent (Auckland), Hamish Marshall (Northern Districts), Glen Sulzberger (Central Districts), Jacob Oram (Central Districts), Kyle Mills (Auckland), Chris Nevin (Wellington), Brooke Walker (Auckland), Paul Wiseman (Otago), Joseph Yovich (Northern Districts), Chris Drum (Auckland), Scott Styris (Northern Districts),

The team will be coached by New Zealand Cricket's director of player development, Ashley Ross and managed by selector Ross Dykes.

© 2001 CricInfo Ltd