Former captain back with Black Sticks after three years

Simon Child will return to the Black Sticks for the first time since 2020.
Photo: Getty Images

Former Black Sticks captain and prolific goal scorer Simon Child is back after a three year absence.

Child will join an 18 strong New Zealand squad ahead of four matches in India later this month – two against India and two against Spain – with next year’s world cup in his sights.

The 34-year-old has 284 caps and 142 goals for New Zealand but has not played for the Black Sticks since early 2020, with personal commitments keeping him out of the Tokyo Olympic team.

“I’d always hoped to play more games for the Black Sticks, but the timing with Covid, as well as a new business and a young family meant that I wasn’t able to prioritise hockey in the last little while,” Child said.

“I’ve spent a large part of my life playing for this team and I’m looking forward to getting back into training and touring India with the guys.”

Coach Greg Nicol has had an almost full complement of players to select from for the series with only Dane Lett and Hugo Inglis making themselves unavailable for personal reasons.

The matches in India will play an important part in preparations for the world cup, also taking place in India.

“We’ll be playing in the conditions that we’re going to be experiencing at the world cup. So it’s a great chance for us to get acclimatised, especially with a few players not having been before,” Nicol said.

Nicol was grateful to be able to call on Child’s experience and said, “hopefully the young fellas can learn off Simon and there’s a bit that Simon’s probably going to learn from them because we’re playing a slightly different style now.

“I think we’ve got a nice blend of youth and experience in our group.”

The Black Sticks will play their matches against India on 29 October and 5 November and against Spain on 30 October and 6 November.

The 2023 Men’s World Cup runs from 14-30 January with New Zealand facing the Netherlands, Malaysia, and Chile in their pool.

Full Squad – Dom Dixon, George Enersen, Brad Read, Simon Yorston, Blair Tarrant, Kane Russell, Nic Woods, Charl Ulrich, Aidan Sarikaya, Hayden Phillips, Joe Morrison, Sean Findlay, Simon Child, Dylan Thomas, Sam Lane, Sam Hiha, Jake Smith, Kim Kingstone.