When his mobile rang and he looked down and saw it was BLACKCAPS Selector Gavin Larsen, Blair Tickner was just about to crack into some fitness training with his Central Stags teammates. It was a nice touch — they would always have been among the first to find out.

“With the Stags being such a tight unit, the boys were stoked for me,” said Tickner who is set to become CDCA’s next BLACKCAP after having been named to replace Aces quick Lockie Ferguson in the squad for the third Twenty20 International between the BLACKCAPS and India under lights at Seddon Park on 10 February.

“Everyone is just as excited for you as you are for yourself.”

Tickner, 25, made his Central Stags debut in the first-class format at the end of the 2014/15 season — a baptism of fire in which Colin Munro pounded a phenomenal 281 off 167 balls at Nelson Park. By the time he made his T20 debut in 2016/17, he was a young right-armer on the rise, with a remodelled, eye-catching high action, wicket-taking mindset and entertainment-plus style at the crease — and on his way to becoming a regular performer with both the red and white ball.

Tickner’s maiden International call-up means two CDCA players are now in line to make their New Zealand debuts against India next month— with young Central Hinds pace star Rosemary Mair, also from Napier, having been called up into the WHITE FERNS T20 squad this summer for the first time in her career.

Tickner started 2018/19 with his maiden appearances for New Zealand A, debuting in the UAE v Pakistan A and impressing against India A in a hard-fought home series.

“It’s obviously gone well over the last few years, but going away with the As and playing a higher level of cricket against better players certainly helped me. Coming back to Plunket Shield earlier this summer, I felt it had helped my game. So it’s been a good season for me so far, and hopefully I will finish it off well.”

Despite aiming for the top, Tickner didn’t see his selection coming quite so soon — against a dominant Indian line-up. “It hasn’t really sunk in, I think it will sink in when I go. At the moment I’m just doing the same things as normal with the Central Stags boys as we get ready to play the Firebirds this Friday. Gavin Larsen rang me on Tuesday morning to tell me I was picked for the Series, but I was actually out running at the running track with boys so we had to make it quick as we had our running sets to do! But it was good news. It will be exciting to get to debut against such a good side.”

Who did Ticks ring first with the news?

“I rang my mother in Australia and she started crying. I told her not to cry because she was driving at the time. Then I rang my father and my grandmother in Napier, they’re big fans of cricket so they were both stoked. I’ve got a lot of extended family so we ended up having a small dinner that night, I think it only involved about 40 people!”

Still in only his third summer in the shortest format for the Stags, Tickner needs just three more victims this season to reach 50 wickets in Burger King Super Smash, having taken 14 — including a sensational 5-19 at Pukekura Park — in this debut season; 21 wickets at just a 15.76 average last summer and now 12 so far this season, with a consistently impressive strike rate.

He was named CDCA Burger King Super Smash Player of the Year at CDCA’s 2017/18 end of season awards and, with George Worker, was also joint winner of The Ford Trophy Player of the Year award, while Rosemary Mair was named Central Hinds One-Day Player of the Year.

Say Tickner: “I’ll tell myself to just keep doing what I’ve done to get into the team for the BLACKCAPS. It’s all I’ve done for the last three years — tried to take wickets in Twenty20 cricket, so I’m not going to change myself, and I’ll keep trying my hardest and see how I go.”

All the team at CDCA is delighted for both Blair Tickner and Rosemary Mair on their national selections, and look forward to their forthcoming international debuts for the BLACKCAPS and WHITE FERNS.

BLACKCAPS v INDIA schedule http://www.nzc.nz/schedules/fixtures/international/blackcaps/india-tour-of-new-zealand-2018-19

WHITE FERNS v INDIA schedule http://www.nzc.nz/schedules/fixtures/international/white-ferns

BLACKCAPS T20 squad v India

Kane Williamson — captain, Knights

Doug Bracewell — — CENTRAL STAGS

Colin de Grandhomme — Knights

Lockie Ferguson (games 1 & 2) — Auckland Aces

Martin Guptill — Auckland Aces

Scott Kuggeleijn — Knights

Daryl Mitchell — Knights

Colin Munro — Auckland Aces

Mitchell Santner — Knights

Tim Seifert — wicketkeeper, Knights

Ish Sodhi — Knights

Tim Southee — Knights

Ross Taylor — CENTRAL STAGS

Blair Tickner (game 3) — CENTRAL STAGS

WHITE FERNS T20 squad v India

Amy Satterthwaite — captain, Canterbury Magicians

Suzie Bates — Otago Sparks

Bernadine Bezuidenhout — wicketkeeper, Northern Spirit

Sophie Devine — Wellington Blaze

Katie Gurrey — Northern Spirit

Hayley Jensen — Canterbury Magicians

Leigh Kasperek — Otago Sparks

Amelia Kerr — Wellington Blaze

Frances MacKay — Canterbury Magicians

Katey Martin — Otago Sparks

Rosemary Mair — CENTRAL HINDS

Hannah Rowe — CENTRAL HINDS

Lea Tahuhu — Canterbury Magicians

Article added: Thursday 31 January 2019