Global Super League T20: Central Stags Preview
The Central Stags will join four other teams from across the globe at the 2025 edition of the Global Super League.
The Central Stags will join four other teams from across the globe at the 2025 edition of the Global Super League. New Zealand’s Men’s Super Smash winners will come up against the Guyana Amazon Warriors from the CPL, the Rangpur Riders from the BPL, the Hobart Hurricanes from the Big Bash, and the Dubai Capitals from the ILT20.
Captain Tom Bruce will lead the side in Guyana with a pretty similar squad to the one that won the Super Smash final in February. Opener Jack Boyle drops out of the team after his move to Otago whilst pace bowler Brett Randell is unavailable due to the injury he sustained in the field against the Auckland Aces in early March.
An experienced pace bowling attack will be led by Blair Tickner and the returning Doug Bracewell alongside West Indian overseas signing Matthew Forde and youngster Toby Findlay.
Whilst Josh Clarkson was out for parts of the Super Smash this season, he was returned to the T20 side and will be a cog of that Central middle order with the likes of Will Clark and Dean Foxcroft providing batting throughout middle order.
There is a strong contingent of experience right throughout the Stags side with Bruce, Clarkson, Cleaver, Bracewell, Tickner, and Ajaz Patel all playing over 60 Super Smash matches for the side. Foxcroft has played 47 Super Smash matches with nine for Central and 38 for Otago.
Some stats of the top T20 run scorers and wicket takers will bring their experience to the Stags over the tournament.
Central Stags most runs (all T20s):
Tom Bruce: 2497
Will Young: 2138
Dane Cleaver: 2111
George Worker: 2107
Jamie How: 1716
Josh Clarkson: 1711
Central Stags most wickets (all T20s):
Blair Tickner: 111
Seth Rance: 92
Doug Bracewell: 75
Ajaz Patel: 72
Michael Mason: 56
Jayden Lennox: 52
Five of the top seven Stags to play in the most T20s for the side have been selected with Cleaver likely to bring up his 100th T20 match for the side and be the first player to do so.
Central Stags most appearances (all T20s):
Dane Cleaver: 97
Tom Burce: 92
Kieran Noema-Barnett: 89
George Worker: 89
Josh Clarkson: 88
Will Young: 88
Blair Tickner: 77
In a tournament where conditions are foreign to most players it will be those experienced heads that need to step up and contribute if the Stags are to succeed and get the results that they want to. Coming up against the four other teams, all of whom are considered franchises, is an important factor to remember with the Stags being the only domestic team at the tournament.
There will be a question mark over who should open the batting alongside Young due to Boyle’s departure to Otago. It is likely that either Heaphy or Cleaver will take on this role. Heaphy having found himself at the top of the order for six games in the Super Smash season with a best of 78 against Canterbury in Napier, a maiden T20 half-century.
A quick look at Heaphy’s batting stats by position highlights how he hasn’t quite been able to put up a high strike and has failed to dominate properly in one position. Heaphy can still be vital in that top order role for the Stags with the power hitting players of Dane Cleaver, Bruce, and Clarkson usually coming in at three, four, and five.
Curtis Heaphy batting stats by position (all Super Smash matches):
Opening (One/Two):
8 inns, 157 runs @19.63/118.05sr, 78 high score
Three:
1 inns, 43 runs @43.00/102.38sr, 43 high score
Four:2 inns, 43 runs @21.50/82.69sr, 31 high score
Six:1 inns, 9 runs @-/150.00sr, 9* high score
Seven:
1 inns, 7 runs @-/233.33sr, 7* high score
In the rest of the batting department, however, there is clear experience with four of the top six all time run scorers for the Central Stags in T20s being in the squad. Clarkson is the only player in the squad that has played in Guyana before, where he represented the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots in the 2024 Caribbean Premier League.
Josh Clarkson has at times got the Stags out of trouble with the bat and is also able to finish off innings, shown by a strong T20 career strike rate of 142.47. He is able to offer an over or two with the ball with Clarkson’s medium pace often being an asset to a tight over or two for the Stags
Throughout the Super Smash Dane Cleaver batted at number three for the Stags and was the team's third top scorer with 216 runs. He could either bat at three or open in Guyana. Cleaver has been an influential wicket-keeper for the Stags over the years and often keeps things tidy behind the stumps.
Tom Bruce had a good 2024/25 Super Smash season where he more than doubled his efforts from the 2023/24 season and will be looking to bring that T20 form to Guyana. His major moment from the season however was the 345 he made against Auckland at Kennard’s Hire Community Oval.
Will Young will open the batting and has also been selected in the upcoming Blackcaps test series to Zimbabwe, which alongside Patel, they will attend following the Caribbean trip. He has a strong T20 record for the Stags, being the second top all time run scorer and has two T20 centuries to his name for the men in green.
All-rounder Dean Foxcroft comes back to the Stags for the first time since 2019, having represented the Volts from the 2019/20 season. Two seasons were missed due by Foxcroft to Covid border restrictions and due to him being in South Africa. Since his return to New Zealand he has made his international debut and will be one of four spin options in the Stags squad.
Doug Bracewell is another player who did not play for the Stags during the recent Super Smash championship campaign due to him being in South Africa with the Joburg Super Kings. He offers an all-round option in the middle to lower order and will likely come behind Will Clark in the team’s top XI.
Blair Tickner is the team’s top wicket taker over their T20 matches with 111 wickets. There was good success for him with the ball over the title winning Super Smash campaign with 16 wickets to his name, after the previous two seasons being six and ten wickets.
The two main spinners in the Central side are Ajaz Patel and Jayden Lennox. There are hypothetical sides where only one of them plays alongside the likes of Foxcroft or/and Angus Schaw. Lennox has picked up 52 Super Smash wickets for the Stags since his debut in 2021 whilst Patel has grabbed 72 wickets since 2012. Both can offer tight overs for Central and will be vital to the campaign.
Angus Schaw is another spinner in the squad who is also able to offer some lower-order hitting. Schaw opened the bowling across the Super Smash with the Stags and was able to get a quick over in at the top for the Stags. There were some chances in the backend of innings for Schaw to come and hit out with a T20 career strike rate of 176.74.
Will Clark has been an emergence over the last couple of seasons and the 24-year old has been able to show his all-round worth. He grabbed a maiden century and five-wicket haul in the Plunket Shield against Northern at Bay Oval last season whilst was at the crease when Heaphy hit the winning runs in the final. A quickfire 23* from 12 against Wellington earlier in the season helped to get the Stags to victory off the final ball.
Toby Findlay emerged into the Stags main XI in the second half of last season and showed his value with eight wickets across the competition. He grabbed career best figures of 3/29 in the final. The 22-year old will be looking to use the GSL as an opportunity to get more form under his belt and push for a regular spot across all three formats leading into the season.
Matthew Forde is the Stags sole international signing in the squad and will bring his local knowledge of West Indian conditions to the team. Over recent seasons, the bowler has played across the Bangladesh Premier League and Pakistan Super League along with the Caribbean Premier League. Earlier this year he struck the joint fastest ODI half-century with it coming from 16 balls against Ireland in Dublin.
To finish off, I’ve got a couple of potential Central Stags XI’s drawn up:
Option one: Will Young, Dane Cleaver (wk), Dean Foxcroft, Tom Bruce (c), Josh Clarkson, Will Clark/Angus Schaw, Doug Bracewell, Matthew Forde, Ajaz Patel, Jayden Lennox, Blair Tickner.
Option two: Will Young, Curtis Heaphy, Dane Cleaver (wk), Tom Bruce (c), Dean Foxcroft, Josh Clarkson, Will Clark, Doug Bracewell, Matthew Forde/Toby Findlay, Ajaz Patel, Blair Tickner.