Dane Lett will bring up his century when he takes the field for the Black Sticks in their first-round match of the Hockey World Cup in India next month.
The 99-test defender hasn’t played an international since the unsuccessful Commonwealth Games programme, having been unavailable for the Black Sticks tour of India in November, and he was weighing up his international playing future alongside his family commitments.
“It gave me a bit of time to step away and take a look at things,” Lett said.
“It’s always a hard decision because January is an important time for family, but some of the dates shifted, and then I was able to negotiate a commitment level that suited me, and all of those things came into it.
“In the end, outside of the Olympics, the World Cup is the next biggest event in hockey, and it only happens every four years, and you want to play in it if possible.”
The 2023 World Cup will be Lett’s second, and it’s at the same venue as the 2018 event – Bhubaneswar in the Odisha province in eastern India.
The ninth-ranked Black Sticks depart on January 5 and play Chile, the Netherlands and Malaysia in pool play, with the top two to progress to the quarterfinals.
Two of Lett’s Dalefield teammates, brothers Benedict and Daniel van Woerkom have also received an international call-up, selected for New Zealand for the World Indoor Hockey Championships to be played in South Africa in February.
