Photo Credit: Auckland Cricket
The role won’t be too unfamiliar for O’Donnell who has captained the ACES in the Plunket Shield on 12 occasions. The 26-year old will take over white-ball duties from Craig Cachopa, who retired at the end of the 2019/20 season.
“Captaining Auckland is something I have always wanted to do since playing cricket as a kid on the North Shore.”
The new full-time skipper has some lofty goals for the next few seasons.
“Now that the captaincy is a reality, the goal is to lift the Plunket Shield, not just once but multiple times over the length of my career.
“As a group, we are all striving to play Test Cricket for the BLACKCAPS and ultimately win as many games with and for Auckland as possible.”
With plenty of experience around the ACES group and a new vice-captain in Ben Horne, O’Donnell will have no shortage of ideas and support.
“We are blessed to have some of the best BLACKCAPS going around – Martin Guptill, Colin Munro, Lockie Ferguson, Kyle Jamieson as well as the likes of Glenn Phillips, Mark Chapman and Will Somerville. All these guys are senior players who know their games inside out and it helps having steady heads to bounce ideas off.
“I’m really stoked for Ben. He’s been putting his hand up in the leadership group for the last few seasons now.
“Hornet’s personality brings the guys together with pride and passion. Hopefully with the two of us, the senior guys as well as some youngsters looking to prove a point, we can push the boundaries of our game.”
O’Donnell will look to add to his 48 First-Class appearances on Tuesday when the ACES start their Plunket Shield campaign against the Otago Volts at Eden Park’s Outer Oval.
