Timothy Grant Southee (born 11 December 1988) is a New Zealand cricketer. He is a right-arm fast-medium bowler and hard-hitting lower order batsman. He was one New Zealand's youngest cricketers, debuting at 19 years old. He plays for Northern Districts in the State Championship and Northland in the Hawke Cup.

He was the third-highest wicket-taker at the 2011 ICC World Cup.

Southee was born in Whangarei, New Zealand, and grew up in Northland. He was educated at Whangarei Boys' High School and made his first-class debut for Northern Districts on 19 February 2007 at the age of eighteen, having already played an Under-19 ICC World Cup for New Zealand. He lives on a sheep farm in Whangarei with his family.

Southee played under-19 cricket for New Zealand from 2006-2009. His under-19 career included 13 one-day matches - 10 at ICC Under-19 World Cups - and a drawn three-match Youth Test series against India in early 2007. His last youth appearance was at the 2008 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup, where he was player of the tournament.

Trent Boult (born 22 July 1989) is a New Zealand Under–19 cricketer. Born in Rotorua, Boult is a right–handed batsman and left–arm medium–fast opening bowler. He accompanied the New Zealand A team on their winter training tour in 2007. On 9 February 2007, Boult took two wickets for 28 runs and scored seven not out against India's Under–19 team. He then travelled to Malaysia in February 2008 for the Under–19 World Cup. He is yet to make a first–class cricket debut, however since July 2008 he has been in the Northern Districts squad for 2008–09. He plays club cricket for Otumoetai Cadets Cricket Club (O.C.C.C) who are the most successful cricket club in the Bay of Plenty. The premier team skipper Campbell Wilson describes him as an up and coming superstar.

On 21 January 2009, Boult was selected for the New Zealand squad for the one-day series against Australia at just 19 years of age. Boult only managed to play in the warm up game against the Prime ministers XI and went wicketless of seven overs. During the tour Boult was clocked as the fastest bowler touring with the New Zealand team with a highest speed of 143.3 km/h (89.0 mph).

Ricky Thomas Ponting AO (born 19 December 1974), nicknamed Punter, is an Australian cricketer, a former captain of the Australia national cricket team between 2004 and 2011 in Test cricket and 2002 and 2011 in One Day International cricket. He is a specialist right-handed batsman, slips and close catching fielder, as well as a very occasional bowler. He represents the Tasmanian Tigers in Australian domestic cricket, the Hobart Hurricanes in the Big Bash League, and played in the Indian Premier League with the Kolkata Knight Riders in 2008.

Ponting made his first-class debut for Tasmania in November 1992, when just 17 years and 337 days old, becoming the youngest Tasmanian to play in a Sheffield Shield match. However, he had to wait until 1995 before making his One Day International (ODI) debut, during a quadrangular tournament in New Zealand in a match against South Africa. His Test debut followed shortly after, when selected for the first Test of the 1995 home series against Sri Lanka in Perth, in which he scored 96. He lost his place in the national team several times in the period before early-1999, due to lack of form and discipline, before becoming One Day International captain in early-2002 and Test captain in early-2004.

Timothy John Nielsen (born 5 May 1968 in London, England) is a former South Australia state cricketer and formerly the head coach of the Australian cricket team. Nielsen played 101 first-class matches for his state between 1990–91 and 1998–99.

Tim Nielsen was confirmed as John Buchanan's replacement as the coach of Australia on 5 February 2007. Nielsen, who became the hot favourite when Tom Moody withdrew from contention, took over the role after the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup.

Like Buchanan, Nielsen played first-class cricket in Australia but never reached international level. He played the last of his 101 games a wicketkeeper-batsman for South Australia in 1999 before he moved into coaching, first with the Redbacks and then as an assistant to Buchanan with the national team.

Nielsen, 42, is the former head coach at the Commonwealth Bank Centre for Excellence in Brisbane, where he worked with a number of the new crop of players looking to make their way into the Australia team.

Prior to becoming coach, Nielsen said it would be a huge challenge to fill the holes left by the retirements of champions like Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath but he believed Australia could remain the world's No. 1 team regardless. "You can't replace superstars," Nielsen said.

Mathew Stuart Sinclair (born 9 November 1975) is an Australian-born New Zealand cricketer. He is a right-handed middle order batsman who has also opened the innings. He holds the equal world record for the highest Test score (214) by a number three batsman on debut when he opened his international career against West Indies in the 1999 Boxing Day Test.

When the call went out for New Zealand Cricket to develop depth in its players in order to ensure that the top XI had constant pressure on them, Mathew Sinclair was ideally placed to take advantage of the situation. In any other age of New Zealand cricket history, he would have been a regular institution in the side.

Despite a strong start with two Test double centuries to his name, the runs began to dry up. This saw him relegated to the fringe of the team, a place many players find it difficult to emerge from. Since then he has intermittently featured in the international squad, most recently being the One Day International against the West Indies at Eden Park in January 2009.