India vs New Zealand: From Parnell Cricket Club to Black Caps, a look at James Neesham and Lockie Ferguson's fluctuating journeys

The Parnell Cricket Club players wear a burgundy cap with a yellow rose on it. The rose is a nod to Dove-Myer Robinson Park in Parnell, which has an extraordinary range of roses. The club plays most of their cricket on grounds that are more in Remuera than Parnell, both of which are some of the wealthiest suburbs in Auckland.

The club has an active junior programme, and most of the boys who play for them end up going to one of the most prestigious high schools: Kings College, St Kentigern College or Auckland Grammar School. There have been quite a few players who have followed that pathway and gone all the way to play for New Zealand.

Jimmy Neesham and Lockie Ferguson are two such players. Born only nine months apart, they both played for Parnell as juniors and then went on to Auckland Grammar school.

In 2008, both Neesham and Ferguson entered the national secondary school fast bowling competition. Neesham was a year ahead, but Ferguson was already turning heads with his pace. He had made the First XI in only his second year of high school, something almost unheard of at Auckland Grammar where there are hundreds of young cricketers competing for a spot in the top eleven.

The two Grammar boys made it to the final, held during the lunch break of a Test against England. It came down to the final ball, with Neesham’s quickest delivery just pipping Ferguson’s by 1km/h for first and second.

Two years later, Neesham was making his first-class debut for Auckland, while Ferguson was having an enforced break from cricket with a stress fracture. Neesham’s debut season was a mixed bag. A couple of reasonable performances, and a few horrible ones, which is hardly unusual for a young all-rounder.

Two years later, and Neesham’s career was at a cross roads. Auckland decided that they were not going to offer him a contract, so if he wanted to play cricket professionally, he would have to move elsewhere. He chose to move to Dunedin and try to make the Otago side. Ferguson, meanwhile, was having another injury-related break, this time to do with a foot injury that required surgery.

It did not take long at Otago for Neesham to make an impression, and he soon found himself on a plane to South Africa to make his T20I debut. It was not a memorable series for him, batting in the tail, and only bowling three expensive overs in three matches.

Ferguson, however, was on a different pathway. Simon Doull had decided to mentor him, and had taken him to train with Didier Poppe, the French Olympic throwing coach. Poppe has coached multiple athletes to great success in shot put, discus, hammer throw and javelin. Coaching a cricketer was an interesting challenge for him, but one that he seemed to relish. He did a lot of work on shoulder and chest strength, and some of that work may be why Ferguson is no longer as injury-prone as he was earlier in his career.

The domestic performances of Neesham, meanwhile, were starting to become so compelling that a social media campaign started up with the hashtag #UnleashTheNeesh trying to get Neesham selected for all forms of the national side.

Neesham had immediate success with the bat, scoring a century on Test debut, putting together a large partnership with Brendon McCullum to deny India a victory in Wellington. In ODIs he had a good start with the ball, picking up four wickets in both matches in his second series.

Ferguson and Neesham’s paths crossed again a couple of years later, as Ferguson made his List A debut for Auckland against Otago on a very hot day at the end of 2015 at Molyneux Park, Alexandra. In his second spell, Ferguson took the wicket of Hamish Rutherford to bring Neesham to the crease. Two overs later he had his second List A wicket, that of Neesham, gone for 5 off 15.

Ferguson came back and finished his spell, bowling at the death, and ended with 4/68. Auckland had a stiff target to chase, which they managed to do with three balls and two wickets remaining. Ferguson was not required to do much with the bat, but he was there at the end. Neesham did not end up bowling in that match.

Neesham’s stocks were now in decline, both for New Zealand, and for Otago. He ended up getting dropped from domestic cricket by the new Otago coach.

Ferguson, meanwhile, was making every post a winner. In a season where the rest of Auckland’s first-class bowlers were struggling, going at a collective 36.5 runs per wicket, Ferguson took 49 wickets in 11 matches at 21.7. He also had eliminated two opposition batsmen through injury.

He was clocked bowling 155km/h and the excitement levels about Lockie Ferguson were starting to rise. Not long after this he made his debut in an ODI series against Australia.

At the start of this season, Ferguson had become a regular feature in the New Zealand side, but Neesham was almost a figure of pity, having been forced to move from Otago to Wellington to get a contract.

But Neesham used his time off to good effect and worked very hard on his game. He was the stand-out player in the Ford Trophy (New Zealand domestic 50-over tournament), scoring some remarkable centuries while also contributing with the ball.

Now the New Zealand selectors are possibly going to have to make a choice between them. Do they want the extra pace of Ferguson, or the batting of Neesham.

On Sunday, it was first of all clear that the pressure on the batsmen decreased significantly once Neesham came to the crease. Perhaps if Ferguson had been there, then New Zealand would have been able to better exploit the opening that the new-ball bowlers had managed to get. However then, Neesham got reasonably close to winning the match with the bat.

Two players who both started wearing the burgundy cap with the yellow rose of Parnell, then the navy cap with the gold lion of Auckland Grammar, are possibly now competing to wear the black cap with the silver fern at the World Cup.