In the Hindu, K Gopinathan recalls snapping a photo of Richard Hadlee taking his record-breaking 374th Test wicket at Bangalore in 1988.

“Thank you for capturing the special moment,” Hadlee wrote on the photograph. Then Kuggeleijn rushed into the room saying he too wanted a signed photograph.

Twenty-five years later, I met Sir Richard at Friday's press conference. The great man remembered. “Yes,” he said, “You got it from a top angle, it has become history.”

In four tests New Zealand's Doug Bracewell has taken taken 21 wickets, and inspired a historic win against Australia in Hobart. But, as Mark Geenty finds out in the Fairfax NZ News, if Bracewell hadn't broken his ankle on a rugby trip to Perth aged 17, rugby might have just won over cricket.

The oval ball game was king for young Bracewell, a promising first five-eighth or fullback who emerged through Rathkeale College into Wairarapa-Bush age-grade sides. He'd played at Hurricanes junior tournaments against the Whitelock brothers, rising stars with Manawatu, and wanted a taste for more. His father, Brendon, arranged him a season in Perth on leaving school. Then, perhaps to New Zealand Cricket's eternal relief, fate intervened.

In the New Zealand Herald, David Leggat writes that anything less than a three-Test series is meaningless, for the sake of protecting Test cricket. Three in the ongoing home series against Zimbabwe may be pushing it too far, but one Test isn't enough to prepare either team for further challenges in the season.

Remember the great majority of money comes from broadcasting deals, and put this in a New Zealand context. The turnstiles weren't exactly whirring at McLean Park last week. Would more people have turned up if admission was free? Would the loss in paying customers have made such a huge dent in the NZC coffers?

In Stuff.co.nz, Mark Geenty charts the rise of Tom Latham, son of former New Zealand international Rod.

When he left school and Canterbury Cricket pounced, Latham also had to shed some weight. Fletcher estimates he lost 10 to 15kg under the eye of their trainers. A hooker's build no more. His batting, glovework and outfielding stepped up another notch. Fletcher says his wicketkeeping is good enough to be a backup on tour, and if required could even follow BJ Watling's recent example and step up to a fulltime role.

Otago allrounder Sam Wells' selection to the New Zealand squad for the Zimbabwe Test has taken most people by surprise. If you haven't heard of him, listen to this from Radio Sport.

With Brendon McCullum playing as a specialist batsman in Tests, New Zealand have been searching for someone to replace him. Reece Young was dropped after five Tests, and the latest candidates are BJ Watling and Kruger van Wyk. Simon Doull weighs in on the debate with a column for Fairfax NZ News.

Watling, despite having only kept intermittently for Northern Districts in recent years, is not a part-timer.

He was, by all accounts, a very good wicketkeeper right up to under-19 level and that should hold him in good stead this summer.

While his test batting average in six matches is a disappointing 24.5, Watling probably offers more with the bat than Young.

He started his test career as a top order batsman and with the keeping duties might feel a degree of pressure off his shoulders to perform with the willow.

The Herald on Sunday thinks the topic is important enough to merit two columns. Mark Richardson looks at the pros and cons of picking Watling for the Zimbabwe Test here, and Paul Lewis says here that playing Watling provides New Zealand the option of going in with five bowlers.

Having Doug Bracewell matching up with Chris Martin, Tim Southee, Trent Boult, soon-to-be-newcomer Neil Wagner, the injured Hamish Bennett, plus Kyle Mills, along with the evergreen Vettori gives the New Zealand attack depth and competition - and, more to the point, gives the Black Caps the potential to bowl sides out, rather than just restrict them.

Having four quicks on hand allows bowlers to come back fresh and keeps the pressure on the opposing batsmen. This is the raison d'etre behind Watling - and Wright is to be congratulated for having the cojones to give it a crack.

So BJ Watling has the inside running to be New Zealand's next Test wicketkeeper, but of the two contenders in the squad logic and pure numbers suggest Kruger van Wyk should be the frontrunner, says Fred Woodcock, writing for Fairfax NZ News.

The logic part is simple - of the two South African-born players, only van Wyk can claim to be a specialist gloveman. The 31-year-old has been doing the job for more than a decade at first-class level both in South Africa and New Zealand, while Watling, six years his junior, is a part-time keeper who is rated behind Peter McGlashan for his first-class team, Northern Districts, and only been mooted as a keeping option at international level during the past few weeks. You can get away with non-specialists at Twenty20, and possibly even one-day, level, but surely test cricket is the domain of specialists.

Writing in the Dominion Post, Simon Doull says New Zealand must use the home series against Zimbabwe to test new talent. He believes Auckland spinner Roneel Hira, Wellington batsman Michael Pollard and Northern Districts opener Brad Wilson deserve a go.

Of course, to suggest that the selectors use this Zimbabwean series as the chance to pick a handful of untested players and see whether they're up to the task would be foolish. The Black Caps can't afford to be chopping and changing their line-up all the time. What I'm suggesting, however, is that they identify a number of "up-and-comers", pick them for the Zimbabwe series and then, regardless of how they perform, persist with them through the South African series that follows.

In the New Zealand Herald, Andrew Alderson examines the growing presence of African-born players in New Zealand cricket.

A generation ago, the subject was more the nature of a trivia question: which New Zealand cricketer was born in Nairobi? Dipak Patel. Now there has been something of a surge, with six of the 72 provincially-contracted players born in Zimbabwe or South Africa, and Durban-born BJ Watling one of 20 nationally-contracted players. Others such as Roald Badenhorst and Carl Cachopa (Central Districts) and Craig Cachopa (Wellington) are also playing matches in various formats. The quantity of African players is apparent but their quality is also worth noting.

Glenn Turner, writing for Fairfax NZ News, says, given World Cups' all-important status, if New Zealand decide they want to finally progress past the semi-finals in 2015, planning needs to begin with the imminent Zimbabwe series.

My advice to players is, choose your counsel carefully, open your mind to learning, and be personally responsible for your own development and performance. There's a need to choose emerging players to find out who has the required talent to be persevered with. This work should start immediately. At the same time it would be prudent to look at the current crop of players with a view to assessing which of them are most likely to be good enough to retain their places in the team through to and including the World Cup in 2015.

In the past two World Cups, the reality has been that selections, player preparation and their approach tactically to games have been more about saving face (putting in a respectable performance) than aggressively going out to win games. The fear of losing badly has tended to dominate thinking and consequently winning has too often relied on opponents having a bad day.

Team culture building exercises are often a nuisance for players, Glen Turner says on stuff.co.nz. He says cricket is a game that is still revolved heavily around individuals and those individuals respond to motivation in different ways, and hence should be given freedom to prepare and think in the way they want to.

All of the attempts at cultural transformation and the flood of peripheral information seem to largely ignore the character and entrenched practised behaviour of people generally. To think that players' behaviours and motivational stimulus are going to change overnight is unrealistic, no matter how well the various corrective measure programmes are presented. The make-up, personality and state of mind of players varies from bullet proof to depressed. Players within the same team are personally stimulated by all sorts of things. They range from internal to external drivers; from self fulfilment, to doing it for others; to national pride, to money and statistics.

A run to the World Cup semi-final, and a rare Test victory over Australia were among the highlights of 2011 for New Zealand. The Herald on Sunday reviews the year.

New Zealand cricket fans caught a glimpse of the future this year, and it looks promising. We've seen potential in the Black Caps before, only to be disappointed. This time it could be genuine.

As 21-year-old Doug Bracewell bowled the Kiwis to a famous test victory over Australia earlier this month, he did it alongside two other seamers who are likely to become fixtures in the national side for years to come.

Bracewell had support from Tim Southee, 23, and left-armer Trent Boult, 22. That trio and exciting batsman Kane Williamson, 21, may represent the future core of the team.

And in the same paper, David Leggat presents his wish list for New Zealand cricket in 2012.

In the Otago Daily Times Adrian Seconi talks to Suzie Bates, who was recently named captain on New Zealand's women's cricket team. Bates represented New Zealand in basketball at the 2008 Olympics but thinks her elevation to leadership means she'll have lesser time for basketball.

"I knew saying yes would mean I couldn't just flitter off to play basketball like I have in the past," Bates said.

"That did come into consideration. Also whether I was ready or not was part of the decision process. But it was too good an opportunity to say no and we'll have to see what happens with basketball."

New Zealand's win in Hobart has shown that the country has a bigger fun base for Tests than the crowds suggest and it's important New Zealand pays more attention to that, such as keeping Boxing Day Tests at the Basin Reserve, writes Adam Parore in the New Zealand Herald.

I had mates of mine texting from all over the world Monday saying: "Are you watching this?". I went out for a drink with Dion Nash on Wednesday and all the guys we bumped into that night were just blown away by that last day and were telling the same stories we were.

Experts world over are slamming national boards for scheduling Twenty20 bashes before important Test series. If the scheduling of the Big Bash League in Australia ahead of the India Tests isn't questionable enough, the scene isn't very different down in New Zealand, writes Dylan Cleaver in the same paper.

The truncated format has always had its detractors, most things that are new and popular come with naysayers. The venom is more pointed this time, aimed at national boards who have succumbed to its commercial appeal at the cost of the more traditional forms of the sport.

In the same paper, David Leggat tries to place New Zealand's Hobart win amongst their other memorable Test victories.

Make no mistake, the New Zealand players at Hobart learned what it meant to win something meaningful. That memory will stay with them for the rest of their careers. A few hours after the win, what sounded like a haka emanated from the New Zealand dressing room at Bellerive Oval

"Doug Bracewell was always going to be a tough customer," writes Ian Snook for Fairfax Media. "He had to be just to keep up with his father Brendon. As a three-year-old he fully comprehended "line" and "length" when bowling in the nets and he understood the punishment if the ball travelled down the leg side. This lad was getting ready to play Test cricket."

Brendon is no ordinary individual and no ordinary coach. Cricket oozes out of every part of his body. A New Zealand international at the age of 18, 77 first class games amidst a series of injuries, and most recently running independent academies for 15 years, he virtually swims in a pool of cricket every day. Just as importantly, the cricket skills he develops in the youngsters through his academy are the life skills he installs. Nicknamed the "Get Hard Academy" by many of his former pupils, Bracewell went about developing independent and strong thinkers, preparing them to be decisive and clear decision makers on the field.

"This rare result has launched the [Ross] Taylor captaincy era, with any luck and good management. He now has the best of platforms on which to stamp his mark," writes Chris Rattue in the New Zealand Herald. "The bowlers took responsibility, did the deed, cast their own shadows. The batsmen need to follow suit."

This historic win, achieved without Daniel Vettori, might enable his teammates to lift themselves out of the shadow the former captain inadvertently casts over them.

Vettori's heroics, especially with the bat, are legendary but they have not turned his team or Taylor's into a winning one. His bowling, for all of its delicate arts, does not seem to win test matches either. The Vettori formula has tended to involve rearguard actions and a battle for respectability which has - as the test rankings show - by and large failed. For whatever reason, New Zealand has been lulled into an over-reliance on Vettori, who for all of his excellence does not have Richard Hadlee's superman capabilities. This is not to denigrate a magnificent cricketer, but the load needs to be spread better.

Brendon McCullum is no opening batsman, and his talents will remain further unfulfilled while he continues in the role, writes Chris Rattue in the New Zealand Herald.

His technique is too risky, too loose. McCullum, who has a decent test average by New Zealand standards, doesn't look like an opener. He doesn't have the application to adapt his game either.

"When Justin Langer and Matthew Hayden tore into opposition bowling attacks, they did so with a sense of control. It did not look reckless," writes Mark Richardson in the New Zealand Herald. "If this expansive top order wants to do Test cricket justice, they must pay more than lip service to it and apply more of the proven basics of the game."

Unlike the truly great attacking openers - a rare breed including Australian Matthew Hayden, who is about to take up the T20 cudgels at the age of 40 - McCullum lacks a base from which to consistently launch his brilliant shot-making against new ball attacks. Hayden destroyed opponents with a presence that said he had learnt the opener's craft, and then expanded upon that.

On New Zealand's previous tours of Australia, the strategy of being aggressive has produced mixed results. Now with Australia fielding a weakened attack, minus Pat Cummins, it's important that New Zealand don't go on an all-out attack and instead be patient, writes Mark Richardson in the New Zealand Herald.

Good things will come to those Black Caps batsmen who wait. This is because they won't have to wait too long. The feeling is that, when you bat against Australia, you have to be aggressive and take it to them. That is a mentality that sits well with our top six - but this time I feel that approach is not necessary.

In the Sunday Star Times, Phil Gifford lists three reasons for New Zealand to be modestly confident of beating Australia.

The last time the Black Caps beat the boys in the baggy greens, in 1993, Jim Bolger was prime minister, an 11-year-old boy, Dan Carter, was in Year 7 at Ellesmere College, and a hot New Zealand movie The Piano featured another 11-year-old, Anna Paquin.

Looking ahead to New Zealand's Test series in Australia, Glenn Turner, writing for Fairfax Media, says: "It is fair to say, though, that the talent gap between New Zealand and Australia is much closer than it has been for many years."

Most of New Zealand's discussions will centre on whether to play four or five frontline bowlers. The discussion should be shortlived, because the batting tail is too long if all four seamers play. On a bouncy pitch against quickish bowlers it would be an unexpected bonus for any of our four seamers to contribute much with the bat. Wicketkeeper Reece Young is a useful batsman, but he has limited experience at this level and therefore batting at No 8 makes more sense than No 7. I prefer Daniel Vettori at No 7 rather than No 6 too, which means Dean Brownlie comes in at 6 and can also be used to bowl a few overs.

Adam Parore, writing in the New Zealand Herald, has a different point of view: "Ross Taylor and coach John Wright face one conundrum: do they go for broke and choose five frontline bowlers and drop a batsman, or stick to the tried and trusted formula of six batsmen, wicketkeeper, spinner and three fast-medium bowlers? I'm inclined to think five bowlers is the way to go, and accept that that is something of a punt."

Also in the New Zealand Herald, David Leggat elaborates on the selection system John Buchanan and Kim Littlejohn have put in place in New Zealand.

Here are the relevant percentages which will help decide who makes the cut, and who misses out: 35 per cent significant performance; 25 per cent consistent performance; 15 per cent contribution to the team; 10 per cent fielding; 10 per cent fitness; and 5 per cent selectors' intuition. This plan is the work of NZC director of cricket John Buchanan and his fellow Australian Kim Littlejohn, the national selection manager. Be confident it's not the brainchild of coach and former New Zealand captain John Wright.

In the Guardian, Mike Selvey writes about New Zealand great Martin Crowe's failed attempt to return to competitive cricket. He says comebacks rarely work and are usually novelty one-offs.

For someone so long out of the game this was always going to be a pipe dream, even if Crowe did "rediscover the joy of batting" in his preparations. Players older than he have played Test cricket (the eldest, Wilfred Rhodes, was 52 when he played against West Indies in Jamaica in 1930), and others have turned out in the county game. In 1982, for example, Raymond Illingworth was 50 when he decided to replace Chris Old as Yorkshire captain. He led Yorkshire to the 1983 Sunday League title. The previous season, Fred Titmus, then almost 50, had turned up at Lord's for a pipe, a cuppa and a chat. He found himself playing against Surrey, taking three wickets.

Jesse Ryder tends to get more attention and column space on his weight, rather than his cricket. But John Wright has publicly backed the batsman, saying that he is capable of getting the team runs. The upcoming series against Australia will be Ryder's chance to prove his coach right, writes Mark Reason in the Dominion Post.

"Not bad for a fat lad," was how Freddie Flintoff, rolling around in his Lancashire vowels, famously defined one of his early swashbuckling efforts for England. But will Jesse Ryder be able to boast as much after the upcoming matches in Australia? Will we hear: "I'm the rock hard tub of lard" after a double century or will the fat boy melt away in the heat of Brisbane and Hobart?

Mark Richardson writes in the Herald on Sunday that New Zealand possess the core of players to become a top-four Test team within three years.

Right now the batting has almost emerged and is closer to the surface than the bowling. The top five of Brendon McCullum, Martin Guptill, Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor and Jesse Ryder picked itself and has the potential to be a regular and formidable force.

For me, Ross Taylor is the only one I'd say has made the step from potential to realised talent but I only say that because I have high expectations in terms of international test standards for all of these five. If our team is to be a force, all these players must become 40-plus per innings players on average.

Much is expected of young New Zealand batsman Kane Williamson, and he hasn't done badly in his short international career so far. Daniel Richardson profiles him in the New Zealand Herald.

Considering the pressure that comes with being a test No 3 - sometimes you're a faux opener, sometimes you're the Mr Fix-it, sometimes you have to set the pace - the weight of a nation's cricketing hopes are on young shoulders, but Martin Crowe says it isn't going to be a burden for Williamson.

"Nah, not at all. He'll find playing at the top, month in, month out, you have your ups and downs. He'll be playing against Australia [next month] and that will certainly test him. But he'll grow into the role as he matures and there's no stopping him scoring as many runs as possible. He's just one of those finds that come along every now and then, so we are lucky."

Fast bowler Andre Adams is performing well in English county cricket and tells Radio Sport's Guy Heveldt that if he was able to come back to New Zealand, he'd be up to international level. Listen in here.

There was a special attraction at Papatoetoe Recreation Ground as the New Zealand legend, Martin Crowe, all of 49, took his first steps towards returning to first-class cricket. He fielded at slip, scored an unbeaten 15, and gave everyone a reason to turn up. Ben Stanley was there and reports on the day in the Dominion Post

Players on both teams averaged around 23 years, born around the time Crowe already had a reputation as one of the most elegant batsmen in test cricket history. Yet the age differences didn't seem to bother Crowe. He chatted to his keeper and second slip throughout the game, but was relatively quiet, even unanimated.

Andrew Alderson of the New Zealand Herald also had a chance to relive the past on the occasion of Crowe's return.

Crowe was blessed with an intuitive sense of PR as cameras were thrust in his direction, adding a surreal element to the reserve grade XI contest. Crowe donned his gear and a traditional bandana and warmed-up with a few practice shots. The cameras lapped it up as he showed the maker's name, a Gunn and Moore "Flare" to be specific. There must be a cheque in the mail for such golden publicity.

In the same paper, Mark Richardson feels that New Zealand's hard workout in Zimbabwe should serve them well when they face tougher challenges in Australia, and at home against South Africa next year. He says the series against Australia should spark interest back home in New Zealand.

Radio Sport has announced it will not be broadcasting live commentary of the Plunket Shield, New Zealand’s domestic first-class competition, this year. Instead they will have someone provide updates on the matches from online scores. The reactions to the radio network’s announcement have been short of accepting, with an online petition urging fans to sign-up and keep a cricket tradition alive. In the New Zealand Herald, David Leggat fears the decision is merely the thin edge of the wedge.

Plainly it won't be anywhere remotely comparable with the service available with voices at each of the three venues used in all 10 rounds; voices to explain to listeners why a bowler has been out of sorts, how a batsmen got himself out in the nineties, who took a spectacular catch at gully.

No matter the electronic devices you use, that cannot be got from someone reading scores off a website.

New Zealand Cricket CEO Justin Vaughan stepped down from his position earlier this week, and writing in the The Press, Geoff Longely observes that much of the time when Justin Vaughan headed NZC it was in turmoil either on or off the field. And while it is unlikely Vaughan was squeezed out yet there was still a lingering feeling that he had not carried staff along with his vision in the manner of predecessors, Christopher Doig or Martin Snedden.

Outwardly, Vaughan can point to progress in a number of areas and issues under his watch, with a more stable financial footing being secured, the weak US dollar aside. Internally, the former doctor performed some substantial surgery but it is arguable if the patient (NZC) is in any better condition.

Andrew Alderson, writing in the New Zealand Herald, says the scheduling of the upcoming New Zealand domestic season, with a 76 day gap between the rounds of the Plunket Shield, the four-day competition, doesn't augur well for those preparing for Test cricket.

It could be time to admit the game's up and let New Zealand focus on being one-day and T20 specialists like Ireland or the Netherlands. It is certainly time to consider whether plans for improving the country's test credentials need a revamp. The regular rhetoric about wanting a better test team may be impossible to action.

New Zealand's test ranking is eighth; below them are just Bangladesh and their opponents Zimbabwe. Plenty of words have been spouted that the test format remains a focus - but the reality is four-day cricket has been reduced to bookending the domestic season.

Martin Crowe, 49, is going to make a comeback. "The question is: can he produce this [his form in the nets] at the pinnacle of club cricket and represent Auckland again at first-class level? asks Andrew Alderson in the New Zealand Herald.

"I'm on track, religiously practising at the Papatoetoe indoor nets and at Cornwall," Crowe says. "The skills sessions are going great. I've been working through a few niggles with my hip flexor and hamstrings but apart from that, I'm fine. I'm not due to play until November [when two-day club cricket begins]. As tempting as it may be, I won't play 50-over cricket; that's a young man's game.

In the Dominion Post, Gavin Bertram talks to members of the New Zealand team that famously beat West Indies in a Test series in 1980. They recount the controversies that surrounded the West Indies players' behaviour and their reaction to decisions that went against them that included Michael Holding kicking down the wickets and Colin Croft colliding with the umpire in his run-up.

The following day the volatile Croft became enraged with a Goodall decision when Hadlee was on strike and flicked the bails off. He followed this act of petulance by colliding with Goodall when storming in for a subsequent delivery. While Croft claimed it wasn't a deliberate act, television footage suggests otherwise. "Live it didn't look deliberate," Lees said. "It didn't seem that bad, but when you saw the replay you thought what the hell are you doing?" "It's physical assault, and there's no doubt it was deliberate," Glenn Turner says. The New Zealand batsman was a commentator during the series. "They thought Fred had it in for them. They were convinced the racist side of it was coming into the decision-making."

Former New Zealand fast bowler Iain O'Brien reveals his battles with depression, how he is coming to terms with the illness and the road ahead. He opens up to Aaron Lawton in the Sunday Star Times.

O'Brien doesn't want to be a poster child for depression. He doesn't want to be a martyr, a role model or remotely like Kirwan. He doesn't want your pity either.But in talking today, on his 35th birthday no less, he hopes that his message might reach out to someone who, like him, has put off seeking the help they so desperately need.

"I don't want to be one of those statistics. I don't want this to fester away either. I've never been quite that low but I've certainly been on the way to being that low. I don't want to deal with that. I don't want my wife and my daughter to deal with me like that.I want to be sweet. I want to enjoy this. I don't want to miss out on what we've got."

In an interview with Mid Day, Martin Crowe speaks of the DRS impasse, the future of cricket and his decision to return to first-class cricket.

I initiated the creation of UDRS in 2007 while on the MCC World Committee due to my experience in TV. But DRS was always meant to have only one challenge, yet ICC started with three! Hot-Spot is instant and must be used; Snicko isn't ready for instant use and therefore can't be used. Hawkeye is 99.5 per cent accurate. It's all there to utilise, but ICC won't pay, and India won't play. It's quite petty really, and cricket loses out again. We are all tired of the grandstanding.

New Zealand allrounder Scott Styris recently announced his retirement from international cricket. Writing in the Dominion Post, Jonathan Millmow says that just because Styris has retired let's not pretend he has been an angel. While he will be remembered as a competitive and effective batsman, throughout his 11 years he banged heads with most people he crossed and right till the end was telling folk how it should be.

It was never dull when Styris was around. He has been a polarising figure, both in cricketing circles and with the greater public. He grew sick of hearing about "the great team of the 80s", constantly felt hard done by at the hands of the selectors, and by the end of his career was trying to control how the media should operate. In short he could hit boundaries but didn't always know them.

Decent bloke. Unfailingly polite. Big family man. Hits the ball a long way. That's Ross Taylor, New Zealand's new captain for you, writes Mark Geenty in the Dominion Post.

Ever since he was confirmed Vettori's deputy, he's coveted the top job, even if it arrived sooner than he thought at 27 years and three months of age. He favours the Stephen Fleming style; stand at slip, go on a whim and tweak the field, an occasional trot for a word with the bowler.

Not prone to press conference rants, Taylor insists he can turn up the volume within the dressing room walls. ""When it's necessary it has to come out. There's no use ranting and raving every time. It dilutes the message. But when it's necessary, I won't mind doing it."

Now that the prolonged two-man race for the captaincy is finally over with the appointment of Ross Taylor, it is time for the team to unite and win some matches for New Zealand, says Logan Savory in the Southland Times.

For too many years, debates have raged over who gets on with who in the Black Caps, whether the power should lie with the players or the coach, and just what is the best makeup of the leadership group.

The first major challenge is two tests against Australia in Australia in December. New Zealand's leading players must front as a unit against the Australians and win some respect in international cricket circles – if they don't win the tests, they must at the very least take them into day five of the tests.

In the Dominion Post, Jonathan Millmow writes that though Taylor deserves space to grow into his new role, he remains a player first, and still has to work on his inconsistent batting.

Geoff Longley says in the Press that Brendon McCullum, who lost out to Taylor, should have been given the captaincy, given that he is in his prime.

With McCullum deciding to dispense with the gloves at test level, having the captaincy would have kept him fully involved in the field, although he will doubtless still be expected to be a senior figure for Taylor.

Now Taylor, almost four years his junior, comes in and there will have to be a settling-in phase for a player who is still fine-tuning his own game at the international level.

David Leggat, in the New Zealand Herald, says Ross Taylor is fortunate his first stint as full-time captain will be the tour of Zimbabwe, but could be pegged back if things go awry against Australia and South Africa after that.

In New Zealand Herald Andrew Alderson writes that when New Zealand Cricket release their list of 20 centrally-contracted players, they are likely to look to future promise rather than past experience.

A quick tot up of domestic form and statistics, combined with the list of emerging players selected for New Zealand 'A' in their tournament in Australia in August suggests a few new contracts could be handed out.

The ranking decision is largely determined by 'gut feel'. Coach John Wright, stand-in national selection manager Mark Greatbatch and cricket director John Buchanan make their final call from what they have seen (Buchanan is more likely to facilitate this time around, given his recent arrival)

The annual trans-Tasman series, which has produced several memorable games in the format of cricket most often criticised, is in jeopardy, says Geoff Longley, writing in the Dominion Post.

Much has been made in recent years of the overkill of the 50-over game, the number of meaningless matches played and the impact that the arrival of T20 has had on the limited-over game with many fearing for its future. Yet with the New Zealand v Australia rivalry, here was a short, sharp series with drama aplenty on both sides of the Tasman.

Many of the matches have been memorable encounters. Who can forget Mathew Sinclair's searing one-handed boundary-riding catch in Melbourne in the opening game in 2004. Then there was Chris Harris, playing his 250th match, batting No11 with a badly damaged arm trying to steer New Zealand through to an unlikely win in the next game.

Glenn Turner axing from the national selection panel is New Zealand's loss, says Jonathan Millmow, writing in the Dominion Post. Turner is not everyone's cup of tea, says Millmow, but if New Zealand are have the right players on the park for each series, then he should be in the mix.

Turner has always been his own man. He has little time for emotion and fanfare and absolutely no desire to establish any sort of relationship with the players or for that matter administrators. If the players want a pat on the back then Turner is the last person they should seek out, but if they want a lesson on technique and common sense he should be among the first. When Turner talks cricket, people listen.

New Zealand batsman Kane Williamson played his first match for English county side Gloucestershire last month. A month on, Andrew Alderson in the Herald on Sunday found out that Williamson is brimming with ambition as he has begun a rite of passage taken by some of New Zealand's best past cricketers.

For now, he has three objectives. First, perfect his technique in English conditions as a reliable top order batsman against the swinging ball; second, expel the myth he does not score his runs quickly enough; and third, harden up to the daily grind of cricket.

Bevan Griggs, a regular for over ten seasons with the Central Stags, suddenly found himself unwanted and out of a contract at the age of 32. Griggs managed to pick up the pieces and establish a secure corporate career, but his story highlights just how easily and quickly cricketers can find their livelihood threatened, writes Mark Geenty in stuff.co.nz.

It still rankles for Auckland-based Griggs, who cut all ties with CD and barely took an interest in their results last summer. But he wasn't to be hurled on the career scrapheap. He had planned for that eventuality, slightly further down life's track, and took up a fulltime role in the ANZ Bank's commercial section, having decided five years earlier to get a foot in the door with a big company in the cricket off-season.

Former New Zealand opening batsman Mark Richardson tells Peter Thornton in the New Zealand Herald how he finds discipline in long-distance running and is now addicted to it.

It is a mental battle and it was the same in cricket. I tried to bat time and with control at about 80 per cent. New Zealand Cricket is struggling with that at the moment - we don't pace our innings. For me the key to batting was being patient and the end of the innings was the finish line.

TVNZ's Max Bania takes a look at how the Plunket Shield players fared this season, and puts together his 'Team of the Year'.

Domestic top orders have tended to be littered with journeyman and Black Caps discards in recent years, which is why it's nice to see fresh talent in the form of the 25-year-old right-hander [Brad Wilson]. Wilson's season highlight came in the form of a career-best 151 in a 274-run opening stand with BJ Watling that saw Northern chase down 385 against Wellington with just one wicket down.

Why New Zealand's appointment of a new captain is creating such angst and has to go through such an excruciating due process is anyone's guess, says Paul Lewis, writing in the New Zealand Herald.

It's important and the choice needs to be the right one. But when did New Zealand sport get so moribund that we can't even select a cricket captain without excessive handwringing and the creation of more steps than the Sky Tower? NZ Cricket CEO Justin Vaughan said recently that the Black Caps did not play again until towards the end of the year - so there was plenty of time. Yep, absolutely. Heaps of time. If you want to look like chumps.

What next for New Zealand in the Test arena, asks Andrew Alderson, writing in the New Zealand Herald. While inconsistencies remain, the team under John Wright, he says, is showing all the right signs.

The recipe is simple. Mix the John Wright coaching regime with a group of open-minded, tenacious players and an attitude of controlled aggression. That is the simplest way to return New Zealand to another successful cricketing era.

The evidence is stark. A team that could win just one ODI out of 12 on the sub-continent towards the end of last year have made the semi-finals of the World Cup, lining up with "the locals" - Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan.

New Zealand's poor performance in the field over the last year may not have led to sweeping changes in the side, or so it seems. It's the support staff where the change is most reflected. Aaron Lawton finds out in the Sunday Star Times.

She's [former New Zealand physio Kate Stalker] contracted to New Zealand Cricket until after the tournament, but like former coach Mark Greatbatch, bowling coach Shane Jurgensen, high performance boss Roger Mortimer and assistant coach Mark O'Donnell, Stalker's role as a member of the Black Caps touring party ended when John Wright took charge just before Christmas.

There's been a bit of action on the Twitter accounts of New Zealand's cricketers. Jesse Ryder vented, Scott Styris placated, and Chris Rattue has the story, and the larger picture, in the New Zealand Herald.

The first thing for Styris to learn is that, by going on Twitter, he is the media. That's why it is called the social media. So if we are the problem, then he is the problem. Secondly, we get an insight into Ryder's personality. He appears self-centred, moody, impulsive and immature. Some of these traits may indeed help his cricket career, others may not.

However, the former New Zealand fast bowler Iain O'Brien writes on his blog that the media has not necessarily come to grips with Twitter, either.

For me, and this is what really gets me going, Jesse’s tweets were nothing that he, or a lot of other players, wouldn't have said in a post match interview or press conference. His comments should have been ‘part’ of the story, ‘part’ of the days play round up that the original article also did. Jesse’s tweets should not have been ‘the’ story with the game fitted around. He was pissed at how he was run out, that’s ok isn’t it?

Ross Taylor and Brendon McCullum will be vying for the New Zealand captaincy once Daniel Vettori steps down after the World Cup. Both have strong claims, and enjoy the respect of their team-mates. Andrew Alderson, in the New Zealand Herald, looks at the relative strengths and weaknesses of the two men and feels that Taylor is ahead in the race for the top job.

Taylor exhibits Andrew Strauss tendencies - cerebral, considered and a safe pair of hands (including at first slip); an appointment capable of doing the job justice and setting an example.

If Taylor is Straussian, McCullum probably comes more from the Ian Chappell ilk. His captaincy is likely to be aggressive and positive with a "follow me" flavour. There would be few grey areas and it's doubtful any test tenure would have too many marks in the 'draw' column.

In the same newspaper, Mark Richardson says that the current rotation policy being followed by New Zealand is hardly the ideal way to prepare for the World Cup.

Management may sell rotation to the players - after all they have no option - but you must be very careful not to sell them confusion, frustration, doubt and a sense of being underdone. What player doesn't like stability?

Adam Parore in the New Zealand Herald writes that former South Africa fast bowler Allan Donald, who has been recently appointed New Zealand's fast bowling coach, will play a key role in helping the bowlers master the art of reverse swing - something that will play a key role in the World Cup, in the subcontinent.

He will be able to help with issues such as knowing when to conserve your energy or to bowl flat out, and strategies of course. The South Africans were seen as the best reverse swing bowlers outside of Pakistan and Donald - who was frighteningly quick - knew what he was up to there.

Mark Richardson in the Herald on Sunday: Vettori's captaincy has been during a large conundrum. To win Test matches with the resources available cried out for adventure and speculation - but the resources (in the bowling department especially) also pointed at containment as the best and only way. Really, how adventurous can you be when eight times out of 10 you don't have enough runs to play with anyway?

Geoff Howarth, Jeremy Coney and Jeff Crowe had Richard Hadlee and Martin Crowe; Stephen Fleming had Chris Cairns, Dion Nash, Shane Bond, a settled top six and importantly Vettori at a time when his body allowed him to spin the ball. Vettori, however, has never had Bond enough, a top six often in disarray, a lack of penetration and all too often only himself to put the skids on both when batting and bowling.

The rationale behind Jamie How's selection as back-up wicketkeeper to Brendon McCullum in the New Zealand World Cup squad was so surreal last week, and aroused criticism, writes Andrew Alderson in the Herald on Sunday.

To How's credit, he didn't bluff. He admitted he hadn't done any keeping since his days at the New Zealand academy at Lincoln. He also did the honourable thing, saying he'd give it his best shot - as you do when the selectors could be listening. Yet he still sounded bemused at the prospect of standing behind the stumps in a tournament-defining encounter with a backyard level of experience.

Adam Parore, writing in the New Zealand Herald, favours Brendon McCullum as New Zealand's next Test captain instead of Ross Taylor, who appears to be the preferred choice.

I don't have the evidence to predict whether Taylor will or won't extract the best out of the players, or whether the captaincy affects his own game either way.

McCullum - who I understand really wants the captaincy - would be very positive and aggressive in his attitude and demeanour, and definitely worth the punt.

David Leggat, writing in the same newspaper, says New Zealand should experiment with McCullum batting down the order in ODIs to try out their options ahead of the World Cup.

Wynne Gray in the New Zealand Herald asks - Graceful or gutsy: how do you like your cricketers?

Vettori's technique would not be front and centre in any MCC coaching manual, but his explanations would be in the leading chapters. Like Jim Furyk in golf, Vettori has honed his unconventional style and buttoned on one of the strongest minds in the game to make his methods work.

Adam Parore in the New Zealand Herald writes that New Zealand's Test struggles continue to centre around the top-order batting, because they don't have players who can consistently score big centuries.

All sides have their idiosyncrasies, but this goes way beyond that. Since I can't see a reason for the problem (batting conditions in the third innings are often close to as good as they get in a match), it's hard to suggest a solution.

Hamish Bidwell of the Dominion Post rips into New Zealand's capitulation against Pakistan in the first Test, saying that the enormity of the batting collapse is almost unparalleled in the side's history.

There's almost no need to belittle them, because the second innings batting figures do that all on their own. New Zealand test history is littered with collapses of a similar magnitude, but rarely against an opposition team of such dubious quality.

The fact that the Black Caps are the eighth ranked, of nine, test nations indicates that they do lose more matches than they win. But this one will be harder to recover from than most.

Paul Lewis, writing in the New Zealand Herald, hits out at Kyle Mills' suggestion that the New Zealand media was to be blamed for the poor public perception of and structural changes in the team following their recent run of poor form.

If the power brokers at NZC are that suggestible, I'd like to make the following strong pronouncement: that, in this time of flux, Paul Lewis should be hired by NZC; that he should travel the world with the team where his principal function would be checking out the best restaurants and bars and writing the occasional press release to assure all those gullible fans that everything is all right; oh, and that he be paid half a million goo-goos a year for doing so.

Keen readers of this column will have noticed a bit of a pause then. That was me, waiting for the phone to ring.

In an interview to David Leggat in the New Zealand Herald, John Wright, who has been appointed the New Zealand coach, says there are no quick-fixes to New Zealand's dwindling form. Wright says New Zealand should not get ahead of themselves and take it one game at a time.

"If you achieve certain goals, winning looks after itself," Wright said. "Whether it's as a player or coach, at international level you've got to have a hard edge, that attitude that 'we're going to take them apart'."

Writing on the website tvnz.co.nz, Max Bania says the selection of 18-year old fast bowler Adam Milne in New Zealand's Twenty20 squad for the upcoming three T20 games against Pakistan seems to based more on media hysteria rather than actual performance.

Yes, he's quick and by all accounts has a mature head on young shoulders, but he's played three first class games and is essentially being picked on the basis of a couple of good four-over spells in a meaningless hit-and-giggle competition.

The New Zealand Herald says John Wright's assignment as New Zealand coach will be different from when he coached India. In the case of India, the job was about managing egos and coaxing supremely talented players to use their gifts to the fullest, whereas with New Zealand he will need to harness modest talent by building a strong team ethos.

The fine New Zealand sides of the 1980s, of which Wright was a part, went a long way by using grit and determination to overcome individual technical shortcomings and provide effective support for two world-class players, Richard Hadlee and Martin Crowe. Nobody encapsulated that better than Wright, New Zealand's third-highest Test run-maker. His career was built on hard work that ensured every ounce of his ability was evident at the crease.

John Wright will bring a tough approach to New Zealand cricket as coach, in stark contrast to the dreadful appointments made over the last two years. In will come passionate cricket folk which Wright never got to utilise through short-sighted administrators, writes Jonathan Millmow in the Dominion Post.

Now Wright has the power. Now the players are uncomfortable. They will have to train when they are told, not when tee-off times and television engagements permit.

Wright is friendly on the surface, but hard as nails underneath. He has a ruthless mind and players under him will be made to work hard on the skills.

Max Bania, writing for Tvnz.co.nz, says that it was a question of when Wright was appointed, and not if. And he is faced with a task similar to the one he accomplished admirably in India, turning around a team of under-performing players.

Some might say he achieved success with India by placating the likes of Sourav Ganguly and massaging their egos, but if he can effect the same turnaround in fortunes with New Zealand as he did with India, no one will care how he does it. His brief with the Black Caps will be much the same too: inspire their underperforming batsmen.

New Zealand have endured a horror run in ODIs recently, having lost 0-4 in Bangladesh and then 0-5 in India. David Leggat, in the New Zealand Herald, says that the selectors have to ring in the changes, and quickly, because the present one-day shambles cannot continue.

The flesh may have been willing but the spirit was weak. Too many players, notably senior figures such as Ross Taylor and Brendon McCullum with the bat and Kyle Mills with the ball, simply failed to deliver. They needed to lead the way and didn't.

Jonathan Millmow in the Dominion Post comes up with his New Zealand XI that he thinks can finally win an ODI game. Among the changes he suggests are making John Wright coach and bringing back quick bowler Ian Butler into the side.

They have to play some aces. Bringing in Wright is one, dropping Brendon McCullum into the lower order is another. McCullum might kick and scream but New Zealand need to rethink their tactics and their team.

Ross Taylor averaged 27.6 in New Zealand's five-match ODI series against India © AFP

Ross Taylor and Brendon McCullum are too inconsistent to be called world-class players, according to former New Zealand batsman Mark Richardson. New Zealand needs to bring in more players like James Franklin, who have been dropped and come back with a point to prove, he writes in the Herald on Sunday.

World-class players win matches through world-class performances but do it more than occasionally. Two of them are Brendon McCullum and Ross Taylor. Yes, they are capable and occasionally do perform world-class deeds but far too infrequently to be labelled world class. Somehow these two players who are crucial to our success must find a way to become more consistent. That alone is a skill and they are both deficient in that area.

Andrew Alderson says, in the same paper, New Zealand's problems lie with the managing conglomerate of high performance manager Roger Mortimer, coach Mark Greatbatch, and captain Daniel Vettori. He questions some of Mortimer's decisions and says Vettori should lose his calm demeanour and erupt on occassion.

Former Indian coach John Wright was scouted out by Vettori in [Duncan] Fletcher's absence but is believed to have turned down the opportunity on the basis that, if he ever takes the team, it will be on his terms. That response was understandable given the approach came after the 4-0 one-day loss to Bangladesh. However, Wright's interest was piqued until he rang his former Black Caps team-mate Greatbatch to discuss it. A source told the Herald on Sunday that is when he realised the current batting coach knew nothing of the move and got quite a shock when he realised he'd been kept out of the loop.

How lost do the Black Caps look in ODIs right now? Well lost, and miles from finding their way, writes Mark Richardson in the Herald on Sunday.

ODI play is all about confidence and finding a team formula that works. It is about getting players in the right positions, settling on a game plan, rehearsing it with success, growing to believe in it - and ultimately winning more often than not. Right now, they seem to have no idea. Watching them bat last evening was painful. Ugly and dumb dismissals, really dumb dismissals, to go with a total lack of batting initiative.

David Leggat, in the New Zealand Herald, writes on what to expect from the HRV Cup, New Zealand's domestic Twenty20 competition, this year. The domestic Twenty20 tournament is into its sixth year and will, this time, feature foreign players. Leggat also writes of their possible impact on the tournament.

Associations have two elements to consider: do they want marquee names who could put bums on seats, but with no certainty of stellar form; or do they want to succeed even if it's done with imports short on star quality, but capable of producing a solid return?

In the New Zealand Herald, Mark Richardson says the proximity of the World Cup makes one-day form a priority for New Zealand and the series in India is an opportunity to erase the memory of the loss to Bangladesh

I'll always argue test cricket is more important than any other form but with a World Cup on the subcontinent next year our ODI form must be the priority. Two chances for development have so far been squandered. In the tri-series against Sri Lanka and India, pitch and weather conditions were very unsubcontinent-like and then in Bangladesh... well, let's not go there.

In the New Zealand Herald, David Leggat says that though Daniel Vettori's side did better than expected in the tough Test series against India, questions remain ahead of Pakistan's arrival in January.

To McIntosh or not to McIntosh? Auckland opener Tim scored a gritty century to sit alongside scores of 0, 0, 4 and 8. The jury remains most assuredly out.

What of Gareth Hopkins? He seemed the obvious successor to Brendon McCullum as test keeper but didn't grab his opportunity. Batting in a range of spots, including No 3 in the final innings at Nagpur when he had a perfect opening to show his capabilities, Hopkins scored 44 runs in five innings. Others are waiting in the wings.

David Leggat, in the New Zealand Herald, picks out five features of New Zealand's performance in India that have enabled them to draw the first two Tests. They include the emergence of Kane Williamson, the reliability of Chris Martin and the promotion of Brendon McCullum as opener.

When it was mooted that Brendon McCullum should go to the top of the test batting order at the same time as giving up the keeping gloves in five-day cricket, it's fair to say the plan wasn't greeted with universal support from the cricket public.

ODIs and T20s, fine. But tests?

With the widely accepted requirements of seeing off the new ball, being patient, having a solid technique and leaving those ramp shots in the dressing room? Hmm, not so sure about that.

James Franklin bats and bowls as he wishes at domestic level but the same confidence has never been witnessed on the international scene. Some are getting impatient. The selectors have given contracts to lesser players, the public is losing faith, writes Jonathan Millmow in the Dominion Post.

You can imagine the scene. James Franklin has scored another hundred for Wellington, a national selector knocks on the dressing-room door and tells him he is required up the road immediately.

His Firebirds team-mates pat him on the back, watch him rush out the door and then all think to themselves "for God's sake Franky, get a big one".

Everyone wants answers about what is wrong with New Zealand. I know what needs to happen - runs must be scored and a heck of lot more of them than currently being scored, writes Mark Richardson in the Herald on Sunday.

With the exception of Vettori and the untested Williamson, all these players have so far failed to realise their various potential and the sad fact is most of them have had 10 times the time it should have taken to do so.

Maybe I am just like them - and believe they are a little better than they actually are. I hate to say that and they should hate it being said, but a world-class performance here and there does not actually make you a world-class performer.

After Bangladesh the public wanted blood and they didn't get it, so the stakes are high now. Expectation is, however, low so the Black Caps can breathe a little easier that they don't need to win in India.

Writing in the New Zealand Herald, Adam Parore says that for all of the praise we must send the way of Bangladesh, following their 4-0 ODI series win over New Zealand, there is one word which best sums up this result: embarrassing.

New Zealand's cricket reputation has been seriously dented and the game is heading for major problems in this country if the Black Caps' fortunes cannot be quickly turned around. Cricket will lose its audience and suffer commercially. Bangladesh have clearly improved but this does not explain such an incredible turnaround in fortunes for the two sides.

Writing in the same newspaper, Mark Richardson says that he did not see the same level of desperation in New Zealand that he saw in the Bangladesh players.

Do our top players desperately need to succeed any more for New Zealand? I'm not sure they do. They may want to succeed but do they need to succeed? With the distraction of the IPL and Champions League, performing on low-profile New Zealand tours is not the priority.

Simon Doull in the News says that despite the Bangladesh debacle, New Zealand Cricket have been sensible to not press the panic button. While Mark Greatbatch and captain Daniel Vettori had to front up to some tough questions for the NZC board, it was just as good to see them walk away holding on to their jobs.

What I would suggest is that the pair could do with a little bit of help in the coaching department. I would like to see someone such as former England coach Duncan Fletcher or South African batsman Kepler Wessels brought in to help. It could be something that may eventuate from the formation of the new committee charged with reviewing the systems – especially if the struggles continue in the series in India.

Jonathan Millmow believes that the 4-0 reversal in Bangladesh has shown up the problems in the three-coach model involving Daniel Vettori, Mark Greatbatch and Roger Mortimer. Writing in the Dominion Post, Millmow hopes Chris Moller, the new NZC chairman, will initiate steps for the appointment of a head coach.

Vettori and Greatbatch front the NZC board in Wellington today and the thrust of their explanation will centre on solutions for improving the batting unit. Brendon McCullum down, Martin Guptill opening, Scott Styris here, Kane Williamson there. In reality, it is just shuffling the deckchairs. The problem stems from a fundamentally flawed management model that among other things has seen young players fall to pieces and Vettori's favourites and selection whims pass muster without question.

Logan Savory, writing for the Southland Times, says that the Bangladesh series whitewash has finally pricked the egos of the top New Zealand players, and cites the case of the McCullum brothers.

The way many of the players have conducted themselves has also been embarrassing.

Our leading players went about their business with their noses up in the air and growing egos alongside them, unaware that most of them were overpaid and under-delivered more often than not.

In the Dominion Post, Jonathan Millmow says, "Following the pitiful 4-0 loss to Bangladesh, it is time to say 'thanks' and goodbye to the fishes out of water who command high places in New Zealand's dysfunctional management model."

Give Mark Greatbatch the reins rather than leaving him in no-man's land. Get John Wright involved to inject some passion into proceedings. Let us ask Stephen Fleming to help Daniel Vettori get up to speed as a captain. Let us ask Ian Smith to stabilise Brendon McCullum. Let us prepare better. The side was sent away to Bangladesh in the monsoon season and seemed surprised when its warm-up games were washed out.

David Leggat in the New Zealand Herald rips into New Zealand's nightmarish performance against Bangladesh in the recently-concluded series, and says a tour of India is not the most ideal solution to the current shambles.

Consider this: Brendon McCullum swung hard and sent his fifth ball straight up in the air; Jesse "Cement Feet" Ryder went nowhere on the crease to be lbw; BJ Watling was hopelessly run out in schoolboy fashion (forget that the decision was probably wrong, the outcome was deserved), Ross Taylor played all around a straight ball with a bat coming down from third slip; and Kane Williamson pushed out to edge to slip. Some batting had that "bags are packed" look to it. Not good enough.

New Zealand got very little out of the tri-series in Sri Lanka; all they got was knocked out in inglorious fashion, writes Mark Richardson in the Herald on Sunday.

It's a shame because if there was some real progress to be made, it would have been to see how good young Kane Williamson could be. His performance carried the most interest. Unfortunately we're none the wiser after he got three swinging, seaming deliveries resulting in scores of 0, 0 and 13.

The other interest was how penetrative Andy McKay would be. He bowled tidily but was far from penetrative - two wickets in three games - but, again, these were far from typical subcontinent conditions.

It was also a chance for Ross Taylor to gain more international captaincy experience but how much influence does a captain really have when match trends are so one-sided?

Also in the Herald on Sunday, Andrew Alderson says "the selectors have made the decision to play Kane Williamson in the international arena, they need to stick with him."

Conditions in the ongoing Sri Lanka tri-series have proved that New Zealand will be best served by a medium-pace attack of "Dibbly, Dobbly, Wibbly and Wobbly" for the World Cup in the sub-continent next year, writes Andrew Alderson in the New Zealand Herald.

The latest match in Dambulla has highlighted the need to audition New Zealand bowlers for a remake of "Dibbly, Dobbly, Wibbly and Wobbly", a phrase initially coined by English commentator David Lloyd to describe the New Zealand medium pace attack of Gavin Larsen, Chris Harris, Willie Watson and Rod Latham.

While the sub-continent is understood to be under instruction from the International Cricket Council to liven up their wickets, the current Sri Lankan conditions are an indication bowlers who make batsmen do the work will be in demand.

Mark Richardson, writing in the New Zealand Herald, does not mince any words in expressing his displeasure at the fact that Ross Taylor will have to play for his IPL side Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Champions League instead of his home provincial team Central Districts.

What sort of outfit invites teams to a tournament then takes their best players? The Indian Champions League, that's who. It's like going round to your mate's house because he's got the best backyard, the bat and the ball but if you want to play, he gets to pick the teams. This has happened to Central Districts in this year's Indian Champions League. They've lost Ross Taylor to Bangalore Royal Challengers. Taylor had no choice. Under the rules, the Indian Premier League get first dibs on eligible players.

New Zealand fast bowler Andy McKay has been a qualified physiotherapist since he was 22. On the surface it seems to be an advantage because he knows his body and its limits. But it can also be something of a problem, as Partha Bhaduri explains in the Times of India.

There are two Andy McKays. One is that rare breed, a late-blooming fast bowler who has impressed the Kiwi set-up with his raw pace following Shane Bond’s exit. The other is a more experienced physiotherapist, and the two are forever at odds waging the never-ending battle between good pain and bad pain. It’s a mental conflict many injury-ridden pacers would gladly foment.

At what point does New Zealand Cricket say, "Enough, Jesse"? Or should they? Why not accept that the Wellington lefthander is a different case, punish him when he breaks the rules but keep the faith? asks David Leggat in the New Zealand Herald.

NZC have tried to keep Ryder on track. They recognise what he can do for New Zealand on the field. His test average of 49.88 is the best of all New Zealand batsmen with a minimum of 20 innings. There is also a milk of human kindness aspect, in that it is right they try to help someone in their wider family who has his problems. But when NZC's general manager Geoff Allott said Ryder "clearly understands we will not tolerate a repetition of this type of behaviour" and confirmed that another similar incident would terminate his contract, it seems a line has been drawn.

Jonathan Millmow is more scathing in his assessment of the situation in the Dominion Post.

Jesse Ryder needs to be made to sing for his supper. His lucrative national contract should be ripped up and he should be placed on match payments. If he's fit and in form, he plays and gets paid. If he gets pissed he doesn't. Everyone's tired of Ryder. His team-mates, New Zealand Cricket, us.

In the Dominion Post, Mark Geenty pays tribute to Eric Tindill, the oldest Test cricketer and rugby international who died at the age of 99 in Nelson.

The quietly spoken Tindill prided himself on fairness and impartiality. The World War II veteran (New Zealand Expeditionary Force), All Black, New Zealand wicketkeeper/batsman, test rugby referee and test cricket umpire never regretted his part in the famous "try that wasn't" at Athletic Park in 1956.

All Black Ron Jarden, playing for New Zealand Universities, carved up the touring Springboks from inside his own half and the packed house erupted. But the touch judge stood firm downfield with his flag raised, and referee Tindill quickly reversed his try decision.

"It's probably one of the best tries I've ever seen," said Paul Tindill, then a St Pat's College pupil sitting in the Millard Stand.

So remarkable was the sporting life of Eric Tindill, who has died in New Zealand at 99 years and 226 days, that being the longest lived of all the 2,600 men who have played test cricket was far from his greatest achievement, writes Huw Richards in the New York Times.

Eric Tindill was the oldest living Test cricketer who died at the age of 99 on August 1. He was a double international, having represented New Zealand in rugby and cricket, and his great-nephew Elliot Lodge pays tribute to his life and achievements in the New Zealand Herald.

To this writer he was a dear relative, a great-uncle to be exact. My family took immense pride in having a figure of his significance amongst us. Even though I only spent time with him on a few occasions, those times are memories I treasure. He lived in a modest residence in the suburbs of Wellington with his sole daughter, Molly. She provided great care to her father and was a lively presence, always welcoming us into their home, never letting us leave hungry.

A memory which sums up his character was when I was a young aspiring wicket-keeper and Eric, well into his 90s, got down on his haunches and demonstrated the technique required.

The unique polygon-shaped Eden Park in Auckland is now a thing of the past. Following a makeover for the Rugby World Cup next year, the ground authorities have removed the boundary irregularities and made the ground into a more traditional oval. Andrew Alderson of the New Zealand Herald provides the lowdown on the venue.

Strokes square of the wicket will need to travel about 66m to the rope, compared to up to 70m in the past. While that sounds as if such shots have less distance to travel, the reality is that Eden Park's former shape meant some boundaries were much shorter than that - and one in particular was only 51m away. The changes have given the ground a longer average distance to score a boundary square of the wicket.

Brendon McCullum has already given up the gloves in Tests © Getty Images

The Otago Daily Times has an extract from the new autobiography Brendon McCullum: Inside Twenty20 in which the New Zealand wicketkeeper reveals his thinking behind making a move towards becoming a specialist batsman.

My hands are starting to become butchered, but that is par for the course in the keeping trade. I've broken pretty much everything in there and I've got a dicky back that is starting to give me a bit of grief, but that's not the major reason I want to hand over the gloves in Twenty20. For me it's about driving the game from the field and communicating constantly with the bowlers.

The New Zealand Herald says the trend of southern African cricketers making the transition into the New Zealand ranks looks set to continue over the coming year as three more players - Zimbabwean allrounder Colin de Grandhomme, and South Africans Neil Wagner and Kruger van Wyk - switch nationalities.

Former South African first-class representative Kruger van Wyk (30) is now eligible for the Black Caps and looks poised to have a crack at making the test side as a wicketkeeper, provided he can force his way into the Central Districts line-up ahead of veteran Bevan Griggs.

Former Zimbabwe under-19 and now Auckland all-rounder Colin de Grandhomme (23) will be cleared to play by the start of this season while left-arm pace bowler Neil Wagner (24) will have fulfilled his residency qualifications by the end of the season after playing provincially in South Africa and having a couple of stints as the Proteas' 12th man.

New Zealand’s Brendon McCullum recently gave up his wicketkeeping gloves so he can bat higher up the order. While taking a not-so-veiled shot at the failings of New Zealand’s openers in the Dominion Post, Jonathan Millmow thinks McCullum has all the wrong attributes required of a Test No. 3 and should not be allowed to bat so far up the order.

Let's not be fooled by the statistics being tossed around by supporters of this hare-brained idea. McCullum has batted No3 five times in five years – interestingly all in England – and amassed 200 runs at 40. There was a mighty 96 at Lord's in 2004 but only one other score over 20. It's inconclusive.

He's too expansive, too valuable down the order, your instincts say no. How many times has the person next to you leaned forward during McCullum's 52-test career and said: "This bloke's a test No3 if I ever saw one".

Brendon McCullum's decision to give up wicketkeeping in T20 internationals is a big loss to New Zealand as he's been the country's best wicketkeeper. But is he good enough to retain his place as a batsman alone? David Leggat wonders in the New Zealand Herald.

If injury is his paramount concern, it doesn't explain why he would choose the shortest form in which to draw the line, rather than the more draining versions. Maybe he just doesn't fancy it any more. Perhaps he sees his career re-energised with a change of focus.

Where McCullum is at fault is in not speaking out to clear the air. In this regard he has been badly advised. He is a forthright personality. Silence, like stodginess at the crease, is not his natural game.

Former Wellington and New Zealand fast bowler Heath Davis has lost half his foot but not his sense of humour. Davis suffered a horrific workplace accident in Brisbane, but as he told the Dominion Post, he's joked to close friends that he got so sick of bowling no-balls he decided to do something permanent about it.

"I can build up to a jog, that is about the height of it and I can still roll my arm over off four paces. Everything is swinging in though when I bowl because it is hard to complete the [bowling] action."

New Zealand had an awkward cricketing summer which promised much but delivered mostly ifs, buts and maybes, writes Andrew Alderson in the Herald on Sunday.

How do the Black Caps replace, or at least formulate a back-up plan, if they lose Daniel Vettori? He may retire from the shorter game soon and step down from the leadership after the 2011 World Cup. His shoulder injury may need surgery mid-year.

Leadership options are limited. Vice-captain Ross Taylor will make an effective leader with experience and Brendon McCullum can't be ruled out if the word "freelancer" is not heard. Vettori has been the saviour this summer, even with his various responsibilities. Equally important is his status off the field. He is respected by the players, media and public for his playing ability but also his thinking on the game which is articulate and canny.

The New Zealand home season has ended and the verdicts are out on what sort of a summer it's been.

What did we learn from the visits of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Australia? asks David Leggat in the New Zealand Herald.

That there are problems at the top of the order - and settling on the most competitive and viable top six - and, more latterly, with the new ball bowling. Nothing new in that.

When they sit down to do their season assessments, New Zealand's management will conclude the national side remains solidly competitive, if a shade inconsistent, in the shorter forms of the game, but still well outside the top echelon when it comes to the five-day version. Nothing new in that either.

Adam Parore says he's feeling "under-whelmed and short-changed" by the 2009-10 season.

I suspect New Zealand are going to have to get used to playing more often against the "have-nots", such as Pakistan and Bangladesh - both of whom we play again next season - rather than the "haves" which is a shame for both the New Zealand cricket public and the state of our national side.

Given our current status on the world pecking order and that we can no longer attract better nations regularly; and allowing for similar results from the system that produces cricketers, what sort of expectations might a fellow hold dear and whisper into the pillow at night? asks Jeremy Coney in the Dominion Post.

Turning his attention towards domestic cricket, David Leggat says Northern Districts, winners of the one-day title and the Plunket Shield, were easily the best side.

It is rare for one province to dominate and so it proved, with Central Districts grabbing the HRV Cup as Twenty20 champions and earning a trip to India for the lucrative Champions League later this year.

But overall honours lie with the Hamilton-based province, who beat Auckland in the one-day final at Colin Maiden Park on a sunlit evening in February, then waltzed through the Plunket Shield, winning by 16 points on the back of six outright victories from 10 matches.

Tomorrow, at his home ground of Seddon Park, Daniel Vettori will toss the coin to start his 100th test, 99 for New Zealand and one for the ICC World XI against Australia in 2005. Only Stephen Fleming, with 111, has played more for New Zealand, writes Dylan Cleaver in the New Zealand Herald.

Fellow Northern Districts and New Zealand left-arm tweaker Matt Hart well remembers the day when Daniel Luca Vettori first came bounding in at training. "He was all arms and legs, he had a mop of hair and glasses," Hart says. "He had a very young face. Crikey, he showed an enormous amount of talent right from the word go, but the thing that stood out was that nothing fazed him. It's exactly like he is today, nothing seems to faze him."

The New Zealand Herald also has a gallery of pictures of Vettori over the years.

Former New Zealand fast bowler Bob Blair was 21 when he learnt he'd lost the love of his life in a rail tragedy back home. The second Test between New Zealand and South Africa was underway, and he fought through the tragic news to deliver a memorable performance. Another hero on the day was Bert Sutcliffe, who, after recovering in hospital from blows to the head, blasted Hugh Tayfield for three sixes in an over in a brave innings of 80. Sutcliffe and Blair set Boxing Day aglow with their courage, in "a story every New Zealand boy should learn at his mother's knee". Click here to read Richard Boock's flashback to that day in 1953 in SundayStar Times. Click to read Cricinfo's Rewind column on the unforgettable day.

And then it happened. Just as patrons rose to acclaim Sutcliffe, a figure appeared from the tunnel and started walking towards the middle. The crowd, about to cheer and applaud, was suddenly rendered silent. Sutcliffe went to his stricken team-mate and put an arm around his shoulders.

"C'mon son, this is no place for you. Let's swing the bat at the ball and get out of here."

Brittenden wrote vividly of the effect of that scene. Blair's team-mates in the gallery above were weeping openly, as were the South Africans and Sutcliffe. Blair had to wipe tears from his face before receiving his first delivery. And then would come the roar of defiance. Sutcliffe would hit three sixes off a Hugh Tayfield over, and take a single to bring Blair on strike. To the delight of the crowd the Wellington paceman would swing the final ball of the over high over the midwicket boundary and into the terraces.

It looks like it is a case of when, not if, Brendon McCullum relinquishes the keeping gloves in Twenty20 and ODIs, and I think it will be a good thing, writes Mark Richardson in the Herald on Sunday.

McCullum has a terrific work ethic but must split that work between batting, keeping and fitness. His batting quality gained him selection as a wicketkeeper and, to his credit, he has been able to turn himself into the best keeper in the country, but he has yet to realise his true quality as a batsman.

We've seen some spectacular glimpses but not enough consistency. An average of 29 in ODIs is simply not reflective of his potential. While he is not physically an elder statesman yet, he is not young any more at 28. If he is going to make a change, then now is the time.

In the same paper, Andrew Alderson says," New Zealand's Chappell-Hadlee cricket series loss was bad enough, but also vexing is the fact the experiments trialled against Australia have generally raised more doubts than answers, less than a year out from the World Cup."

With Jacob Oram sustaining yet another injury, there's no better time to bring up that old debate about whether he should stop bowling. He should, writes Mark Richardson in the Herald on Sunday.

He likes to take a full part and his value in the Indian Premier League is also tied to his skill as an allrounder. However, if he continues to go the way he is, his desire to be an allrounder will diminish his all-round skills, as he takes far from a full part in games. He has retired from Test cricket to reduce his workload so he can play as an allrounder in the short forms but here he is - injured again.

Scott Styris might be difficult but there is no questioning his ability. He is also 34, not 104. Play the best and manage them. After all, isn't that what has been done with Jesse Ryder? Styris demonstrated again last night he is, indeed, among New Zealand's best and surely that has to be respected with selection, writes Paul Lewis in the Herald on Sunday.

Mark Richardson is worried by the lack of experience in the New Zealand Test top-order. Writing in the New Zealand Herald, he says that the unproven line-up, with the exception of Ross Taylor, would do well to get some runs and confidence against Bangladesh, ahead of sterner tests against Australia.

New Zealand simply have to get some test runs to give them confidence heading into the Australian series. Australia will be rubbing their hands together in glee, looking at the inexperienced New Zealand lineup. It's often easier to score runs in a first innings against Australia but the bowlers soon work players out and formulate a plan. So they have to strike while the iron is hot, both for their own sake and that of New Zealand cricket.

In the New Zealand Herald, David Leggat speaks to the new national coach Mark Greatbatch and finds a man who isn't exactly comfortable with the notion of being "head coach".

On the park, captain Dan Vettori is the boss. No arguments, and that's the way it should be. Off it, there are people with various responsibilities. In Greatbatch's case, he is a national selector - and does most of the public comment around panel decisions - but will focus on coaching the batsmen, just as Shane Jurgensen works with the bowlers and former Auckland coach Mark O'Donnell oversees the fielding. Greatbatch has a holistic view of the New Zealand team. He points out that the size of the country means it should be all hands to the pump and he's determined to get the key figures involved as New Zealand look to move ahead in the coming year.

In the same paper, Adam Parore writes that Justin Vaughan has done a fine job bringing in the revenues for New Zealand Cricket, but it's high time he starts inviting more fashionable teams to the country, instead of Bangladesh.

David Leggat in the New Zealand Herald thinks that the selectors may spring a few surprises for the New Zealand Test squad to take on Bangladesh, as the limited-overs dominance has made their task tougher.

Bowling at the death isn't to every bowler's liking. For New Zealand it's still a work in progress, going by their recent performances against Bangladesh, writes Leggat in another piece in the same paper.

In light of the selections of first-class journeymen Peter Ingram and Andy McKay to the New Zealand squad, Daniel Richardson, in the Manawatu Standard, takes a look at 11 journeymen in domestic cricket who haven't played for New Zealand in any form of the game.

Michael Parlane, Northern Districts, debut 1992-93
The definitive first-class journeyman and the obvious choice for the captaincy. The older Parlane brother is the longest-serving current first-class player in New Zealand. He's a steady opener who has 15 tons in the four-day game, but with an average of 32 he was hardly banging down the door for a call-up to the next level.

Neal Parlane, Wellington, debut 1996-97
Parlane could count himself a bit unlucky he hasn't been thought of as an opener in recent times with some heavy scoring, particularly in the Twenty20 competition this summer. The 31-year-old has been a loyal servant to Wellington and Northern Districts and can also keep wickets if required.

After observing New Zealand's strong showings in one-dayers in the past six months, including the run to the ICC Champions Trophy final and the series victory over Pakistan in the UAE, Mark Richardson makes the bold claim in the Herald on Sunday that New Zealand have the goods to win the 2011 World Cup in the subcontinent.

Ryder and Brendon McCullum are potentially a devastating combination but if Ingram can back up his top debut, there's cover at the top. The openers are backed up by Martin Guptill, who is proven now at ODI level, and Ross Taylor, who is approaching world class.

Factor in the return of Shane Bond and Kyle Mills, then there's competition for the last spot in Ian Butler, Daryl Tuffey, Tim Southee, Andy MacKay and Nathan McCullum. There's plenty of batting ability in that lot, too.

New Zealand Cricket seems confused. First came an announcement that Brendon McCullum was no longer vice-captain. Fair enough. And now a further announcement that Ross Taylor is also not vice-captain. Equally fair. Then came Mark Greatbatch's appointment as head coach. His stint with Warwickshire was volatile, but these tales are at odds with the character NZC led us to believe will work alongside Vettori, writes Jeremy Coney in the Dominion Post.

Yet instead of adapting to accommodate the county system and the Warwickshire ethos, Greatbatch began the new era by stamping his authority. He imposed himself aggressively. An uncompromising, "I'm the boss" and "we'll do it my way". It led to discontent. Morale plummeted. Barriers went up and players turned against him. Two departed and other senior members rebelled.

One of the key successes of the inaugural HRV Cup in New Zealand was the presence throughout of the country's best players. Though January is best suited to the shortest form of the game, international obligations may force New Zealand Cricket from ring-fencing the month in the future. David Leggat has more in the New Zealand Herald.

Sam Worthington in the Dominion Post speaks to New Zealand Cricket chief Justin Vaughan, who also believes a repeat of the domestic boom next summer appears impossible because of the World Cup.

Andy McKay's surprise selection to the New Zealand squad for the ODIs against Bangladesh has led Andrew Alderson in the New Zealand Herald to look up 10 instances where surprise did not always mean success, and where experiments went wrong.

He could have been a corporate high-flyer, a brewery boss or even a public relations genius but Mark Greatbatch has settled for the post of New Zealand head coach for now. Andrew Alderson, in the New Zealand Herald, profiles the former opener-turned coach and speaks to former players who've been associated with him, including Justin Vaughan and Danny Morrison.

"But Mark always knew how to schmooze with corporate types, be it out at the races or at the tennis. He was an incredible networker, just loved going out to dinners. He'll be genuine, infectious and passionate in his new role. He used to get so fired up on the field with big diving catches and a willingness to get peppered as an opener just to fill a spot in the side when the middle order was strong."

In the same paper, David Leggat says Greatbatch has got plenty of hats to wear and his first challenge will be to tighten up the techniques of the batsmen at least before the Australians arrive. He should also look to inspire the players to display the same enthusiasm and resolve which set him apart during his playing days.

Greatbatch is an enthusiastic man and he's a straight talker. He hasn't shied away from hard conversations with players. Having two of the three selectors in the team's inner sanctum seems one too many, but give it time. At least a decision has been made and now it's time to move forward.

	Should the ink of 'SB Styris' be drying on the team sheet? © Getty Images

Scott Styris' omission from the squad to play Bangladesh appears to be a decision the selectors based on attitude rather than form, writes Andrew Alderson in the New Zealand Herald. Styris was offered the chance to respond to his omission and the resulting feedback but politely, and perhaps understandably, declined, but a number of cricketers took minimum coaxing to comment.

"Scotty kicked a lot of people on the way up, now he's getting kicked by a lot of people on the way down," one said. "He can be a bit of a bully boy with his pranks to try to fit in. Dan would ask if he's a must-have? Most would say 'no'."

Another said: "He's highly competitive but when he takes the piss it can be misconstrued at times."

Other responses included: "He's seen as selfish, a difficult bugger," and "my heart's not bleeding for him. Cricket always revolved around what he was doing. Scotty's all about Scotty."

In the same paper Mark Richardson says the Central Districts opening batsman Peter Ingram has no second chances and that's the beauty of selecting someone in their thirties.

Meanwhile Paul Lewis feels that if Twenty20 can help lift attendances and appreciation of cricket, including Tests, then it will have performed a mighty task.

In the Sunday News, Aaron Lawton speaks to Jesse Ryder and discovers his difficult upbringing has played a part in his sometimes wild ways.

"I haven't ever really had boundaries or rules set in place for me, even when I was a young fella," Ryder told Sunday News, at his home in Lower Hutt. "Growing up, I basically just did what I wanted to do so it has been really hard to change the way I do things." He was moved around the Wairarapa and finally settled in Napier with dad Peter. "I didn't really have the best upbringing in Napier because my old man was always going out and coming in late," Ryder said.

The secrecy which accompanied the appointment of Ross Taylor as 'stand-by' captain for New Zealand has intrigued David Leggat in the New Zealand Herald. He believes NZC appear to have managed to efficiently plug any leaks on what's going on with cricket in the country.

It would be easier to get a one-on-one chat with Vladimir Putin on the inner workings of the politburo while sharing a couple of Big Macs in Red Square than get a clear idea of how things are progressing with this.

Taylor's appointment is a signal that the New Zealand selectors are readying for life without captain and talisman Daniel Vettori. Former wicketkeeper-batsman Adam Parore, writing in the same paper, believes the secrecy was more about not putting the previous vice-captain, Brendon McCullum, in an awkward spot, now that he been relieved of the job.

It has been three months since Andy Moles was sacked as New Zealand coach and his replacement is still nowhere in sight. Mark Richardson, in the Herald on Sunday, feels that if the players should be given a major say in the kind of coach they want, they should share the cost as well.

It's unlikely, I know. But they are independent contractors, are they not? They seem to be able to make decisions over where they play, who they play for and what they play and now they want the say on who coaches them.

In the same paper, Paul Lewis fears that when Australia arrive, there will be no coach, nor team director, psychic, horse whisperer or whoever it is New Zealand Cricket is trying to get. Daniel Vettori will continue to call the shots and it's hard to say if John Wright's the ideal man for the job.

There's just one thing. Who minds the minders? When it all goes pear-shaped and the wheels fall off and all the other disastrous cliches start to apply ... what will Vettori do? Will he ditch trusted lieutenants? Will the hard decisions be taken or will he circle the wagons?

Daniel Vettori been such a fixture in the New Zealand team it now stretches the memory to remember a time when he wasn't in the line-up © Getty Images

Daniel Vettori, New Zealand's spin-bowling prodigy, was always destined for great things on the pitch says Matt Nippert in the Herald on Sunday. Speaking to the man himself, as well as his friends and former players along the ride from backyard to international arena, Nippert finds out that Vettori doesn't want to burn any bridges

Interviews with friends and teammates from these early years reveal a driven boy of considerable talent - and several tall tales. Ron Henzell's house in Dalethorpe Ave in Hamilton has seen many great cricketing moments from Vettori. Henzell's son Nick was the same age as Vettori and the duo often competed in epic backyard games played under traditional one-hand, one-bounce rules.

New Zealand are searching for a coach. But, as Andrew Alderson reveals, a recent appointment could signal a new structure which may count against John Wright becoming head coach.

The game is approaching a watershed that includes some strong implications for New Zealand. Once again, Alderson dissects the new Future Tours Programme, which could start to cull the 50-over game and affect the global value of New Zealand players.

The New Zealand-Australia series scheduled for February and March next year appeared to have in the ingredients for a riveting contest until Shane Bond and Iain O'Brien announced their retirements, writes Chris Rattue in the New Zealand Herald.

In these quarters, O'Brien and Bond's decisions have been greeted with extreme disappointment, because the players have opted out of a golden opportunity, for them and their team. What was shaping as a terrific contest might now be a dud. That the great and the good around cricket seem so resigned to their departure, and almost supportive, makes it doubly disappointing.

	Shane Bond gave the bowling a synergy that has been missing for some time © Getty Images

In the recently-concluded series against Pakistan, New Zealand failed to distinguish themselves and better their current ICC Test ranking. Mark Richardson, writing in the Herald on Sunday believes a solid performance must be put in against Australia in March, if they are to move up from their lowly No. 7 position.

A lot will depend on the fitness of Shane Bond, the late season form of the middle order and whether or not the two 50-run stands the openers put on was progress or just a reflection of the flat pitch.

Bond whacking them down at 150km/h was one of the highlights of this whole sporting year for me, in any code. I thought his express days were over and he would join the fast-medium pack but he certainly is not ready for that yet.

Ian Anderson in the Waikato Times says the evaluation of New Zealand's efforts against Pakistan is difficult. But even more mind-boggling is the poser – how are they likely to fare in the forthcoming home test series against Bangladesh and Australia?

New Zealand have used 30 opening partnerships in their 145 innings this decade. However, Andrew Alderson, in the Herald on Sunday, reckons the perennial search in New Zealand cricket for genuine openers just might be over, with the performances of Tim McIntosh and BJ Watling against Pakistan.

One of the key flaws in the test line-up since Mark Richardson's retirement in 2004 has been the lack of an anchor or anchors at the top of the order who can see an innings through to a point where either a) a change bowler is limbering up with some trepidation at third man or b) red stains are evident on the odd pair of trousers as frustrated fielders try to administer more polish to a scuffed ball.

Also, Greg Ford, in the Sunday Star Times, finds out what makes Watling tick.

Lou Vincent is giving cricket in New Zealand one last chance. The 31-year-old, who has been living mainly in Britain since moving on from his ICL days, is keen to be part of the county setup and prove his worth. He reveals his desire to return to the national side in an interview to Andrew Alderson.

Writing in the New Zealand Herald, Adam Parore says he would put Daniel Vettori in the "same sort of category as guys like Ian Chappell and Mike Brearley, the legendary English and Australian captains."

Daniel Vettori is showing signs of being among the finest leaders in the history of cricket and his bosses at New Zealand Cricket need to ensure they don't rock the boat when they appoint a new coach. NZC say they want the new man in place before we play Bangladesh in early February, although I don't believe there is a need for undue haste.

In the New Zealand Herald, David Leggat says day-night Test cricket will not work in New Zealand.

It could only happen in warmer climates than this. Fancy shivering on a dewy bank at Seddon Park at 8.30pm among a smattering of spectators while a batsman pokes out his pad with three fielders round the bat? Or, as a colleague pointed out yesterday, playing cricket at night needs a full house, a balmy night and plenty of beer on board.

The harsh glare has been on New Zealand's erratic batting in the Test series against Pakistan - and it's not a new problem either - but there also a bowling issue for the panel to ponder, writes David Leggat in the New Zealand Herald.

The first choice alongside Chris Martin and Daryl Tuffey is Tim Southee. All three had their moments, but also their flat periods in a four-pronged, fast-medium attack in Napier ... The leading candidate appears to be Northern Districts' in-form Brent Arnel. He is 30 but if applying the principle of picking players at the top of their game then Arnel should be given his chance.

New Zealand might disagree and bemoan the rain which ruined a likely march to victory over Pakistan yesterday but a one-all draw was a reasonable outcome, writes David Leggat in the New Zealand Herald.

Put it this way: New Zealand won a thriller at Dunedin which could have gone either way; Pakistan walked the second at the Basin Reserve against a wretched batting display; and New Zealand had a clear edge in the decider but ran out of time on a pitch which, despite confident predictions that it would be perkier than usual for the bowlers, proved to be another examination of their spirit and perseverance. There wasn't much between the teams and that added to the intrigue. Some of the cricket was of pretty poor quality - from both teams.

	Tim McIntosh: searching for stability © Getty Images

A 60-run opening stand between New Zealand's latest opening pair of Tim McIntosh and BJ Watling, on debut, was the highest since the former joined the team over a year ago, or more specifically 17 innings. Obviously it's too early to tell if this is the beginning of a new era of Wright & Edgar-style authority, says Andrew Alderson in the Herald on Sunday.

Before the third test, the opening pair had failed to last more than 11 balls. This leads to a more devastating statistic that compounds on the remainder of the team. In the 16 innings prior to this one, New Zealand has got through the first eight overs just four times, the maximum being 12.1, before losing a wicket.

Any cricketer knows - and particularly first-drop batsmen - that this is barely enough to significantly tarnish the gold lettering on a brand new cherry. As a result, New Zealand's middle order batsmen also have to develop opening skills, rather than displaying their talents against a less venomous leather missile.

Alderson also went searching for answers to why Ross Taylor the only New Zealand top-order batsman with any consistent authority over the Pakistan bowlers, and found a balanced, maturing individual.

Working up a storm, Alderson spoke to three former New Zealand players about the future of the country's fast-bowling stakes and found some uncomfortable issues. Danny Morrison wants more swing; John Bracewell wants more pace; Mark Greatbatch is saying "don't panic, help is on the way" - but New Zealand's pace bowling may be headed into some experimental and possibly lean years.

In the same paper, Mark Richardson says a lack of truly fast bowlers on the domestic circuit is hurting New Zealand's development.

Ironically, the problem of late has been as a result of an improvement in provincial playing conditions. Better playing surfaces dominate and medium pace seam bowlers are not testing batsmen's techniques as they once did.

	Is Brent Arnel the future? © Getty Images

All the talk is of New Zealand's batting woes of late, but what about the other half of the game? Writing in the New Zealand Herald, David Leggat looks at the contenders to lead New Zealand's bowling attack in the immediate years to come.

A word around the country with some of the first-class coaches came up with some interesting names. Who had impressed them with an eye to the test team in the next couple of years? The obvious next in line is Tim Southee. He is 20 and swings the ball, but lost his way late last season against the batting might of India.

Then there is his Northern Districts colleague, Brent Arnel, who gets good marks for consistency and having had a couple of strong seasons, taking 33 wickets last season and 20 so far this summer.

Depending on which batsmen have most raised the selectors' hackles, three players are in line for the axe from the New Zealand third test team to face Pakistan in Napier this week, writes David Leggat in the New Zealand Herald.

Among the top six, Ross Taylor is the exception; opener Martin Guptill will stay, although he's only managed 75 runs at 18.7 in four innings. So too Daniel Flynn, who at least grafted 5h 8min over 29 and 20 at the Basin Reserve - solid stuff in this context. However lefthander Tim McIntosh (37 runs at 9.5), and middle-order pair Peter Fulton (42 at 10.5).and Grant Elliott (59 at 14.7) all in four innings are on a knife edge. At least one must go.

In the same paper, Leggat also says New Zealand are operating as two distinct halves, and their bowlers are being badly let down.

New Zealand lost the second Test to Pakistan in Wellington by 141 runs, getting bowled out for 99 in first innings. Apart from Ross Taylor, all other top-order batsmen have looked out of depth. Tim MacIntosh, Martin Guptill, Daniel Flynn and Peter Fulton all have massive issues with their footwork - issues so large that if they aren't ironed out they will never make the grade, writes Mark Richardson in the Herald on Sunday.

Flynn has gone backwards over the last year and whoever is responsible for that should be ashamed of themselves. Here is a young man with a great attitude and a ton of determination but a technique that is doomed to failure. It's beyond me how he has been allowed to develop this over complicated method that results in no forward movement and lbw after lbw. Fulton looks like a dead man walking at the crease right now and epitomises our woes. Here's a player brought back into the test arena on the back of great first-class form - and does not look any better than last time he was there. There's a swag of these players littering our game right now. I'd suggest these players actually analyse how they are scoring their first-class runs; not how many they are scoring.

Of our batsmen, only Ross Taylor and Daniel Vettori have reached anywhere near the amount of consistent performance required to say they have made the Test grade, writes Mark Richardson in the Herald on Sunday.

The rest are obviously still at the first-class level or unable to make the shift from limited-overs play and, worst of all, continue to make the same technical and mental mistakes over and over again. Tim MacIntosh, Martin Guptill, Daniel Flynn and Peter Fulton all have massive issues with their footwork - issues so large that if they aren't ironed out they will never make the grade.

Richardson and Andrew Alderson ask more questions of New Zealand's batting in the Herald on Sunday.

So what is wrong with our batting? Why do we find test cricket so hard? In 10 completed innings this year, prior to the second test, New Zealand were dismissed for less than 300 in seven of them. Last week's second innings was the worst collapse of the lot - before the Wellington innings took the title.

A combination of technique and temperament is causing the problem. Players initially struggled to adjust to the left-arm over-the-wicket deliveries of Mohammad Aamer while opening bowling partner Mohammad Asif has kept asking questions with a tight line in and around off stump.

Another factor is the team's return from a diet of limited-overs matches where harvesting controlled runs through a vacant slip cordon suddenly presents a trap in Tests.

Poor old Shane Bond. He's a strange sportsman for whom you can quite easily feel pity and irritation at the same time. Has there ever been a New Zealand cricketer so injury-prone? Has there ever been a New Zealand sportsperson so often removed from the field of play? asks Paul Lewis in the same newspaper.

An injury-plagued Shane Bond's return to Test cricket lasted one match. Writing in the New Zealand Herald, Adam Parore advises Bond to focus on one-day cricket.

He wants 100 Test wickets, but then he should step away from the Test game and concentrate on the ODIs and Twenty20, certainly if he fancies being around for another season or two. It's a shame for Bond and New Zealand cricket, but it seems a no-brainer.

At 40, Chris Harris still feels fit and the desire is there. In fact, he reckons he has two or three seasons left in him. When you love the game as much as Harris does, it's only natural to continue on. And you are as old as you feel, he claims, which in Harris' case means he is only 30. Chris Rattue interviews him in the New Zealand Herald.

If you weren't a cricketer, what would you like to be?

A Formula One driver or a golfer. I say F1 because that is seen as the pinnacle of car racing, but I love any type of racing. I went in a smash-up derby in Ashburton once. I bought an Austin Cambridge and came fourth or fifth. I didn't let my cricket bosses know of course.

In the same paper, David Leggat picks out the ten best Basin Reserve Test memories.

Waqar Younis, in his new role as commentator for the New Zealand-Pakistan Tests, believes the standard of fast bowling nowadays is more computerised and more analysing. He attributes it to the big difference is the characters. Sam Worthington catches up with the former Pakistan captain in the Dominion Post
.

In the 80s and 90s there were more characters on the field than now. Now it's more mechanical, like machines are bowling. Nice target bowling and if the runs are coming fast, put the fielders back. In our day we'd push the batsmen back on to the back foot.

It was a great effort by New Zealand but I am still going to argue that they can win more Tests by adjusting their batting line-up so they can select more bowlers, writes Mark Richardson in the Herald on Sunday.

If Vettori can maintain his batting form and Brendon McCullum can continue to develop his Test game, then seven is as far south as either of these two need venture. Vettori seems to believe that if three seamers and himself can't get the job done, then an extra seamer won't either. But right now eight batsmen are not exactly getting the run-scoring job done either, as per the second innings collapse.

Even though the win was a good one, with character and doggedness, let's wait before we give ourselves totally over to the illusion of a rosy future, writes Andrew Alderson in the Herald on Sunday

There are severe deficiencies, particularly in the batting. Can Daniel Flynn make it as a No3, averaging 21.50 in the position since his promising start of 95 against the West Indies a year ago? Will New Zealand be able to return to an era where Flynn doesn't have to think about striding out to bat when the ball is still brand new - having only touched the pitch, the stumps or the edge of a bat and a member of the slip cordon's hands - due to a lapse in an opener's concentration?

The fast men won this test and will continue to have their shoes shined by the batsmen, writes Jonathan Millmow in the Sunday Star Times.

In tandem, Bond and O'Brien bowled like heroes, then headed down to fine leg where they were greeted by rousing receptions. They touched their caps as gestures of thanks, took a swig of water, caught their breath, then up they came again in search of more spoils.

Also in the Sunday Star Times, Michael Donaldson says Bruce Edgar could be a candidate for the New Zealand coaching job.

New Zealand's pace attack for the Dunedin Test may be geriatric - with an average age of 33 - but they are the best in the country so it's essential they all get picked, writes Mark Richardson in the Herald on Sunday. He gives his views on the rest of the playing XI and reckons Daniel Flynn and Peter Fulton will compete for the No.3 spot.

Maybe young Tim Southee could see himself unlucky here, but Tuffey by all accounts was the pick of the first-class bowlers last season and that may have been enough to see him in over Southee. O'Brien and Martin are our Test specialists and deserve the right to show it, while Bond simply must play if he is fit enough.

In the same paper, Andrew Alderson touches on the search for New Zealand's new coach. He says John Wright is unlikely to fill that role while Mark Greatbatch has ruled himself out.

Chris Martin is an interesting character, not a tunnel-visioned cricket head by any stretch, writes David Leggat in the New Zealand Herald. Martin, his country's fourth highest wicket-taker in Test cricket, tells Leggat he is determined to show there's still life in those long, loping strides.

"Unfortunately when you get to a certain age and you're still playing, people ask when you're going to stop, which is a little bit offensive at times. You keep playing while you're good enough. If people are constantly asking if you're out of time you start to think maybe that's how they are perceiving you."

	McCullum: still there, still having his say, still being heard, and back in form © Getty Images

Eric Young writes in the Sunday Star Times that Brendon McCullum should be reinstated as New Zealand vice-captain. The person who is the captain of New Zealand is now also its vice-captain, coach and selector, and Young isn't sure whether this is madness or genius but he is certain it can't last for long.

McCullum deputised in the Twenty20s but by all accounts the Kiwis were lucky to scrape together 11 fit players. Is McCullum now the man to captain the Test team? And how, with Vettori doing all the jobs that matter, is leadership being encouraged within that dressing room? Do we look down the list, arrive at someone such as Ross Taylor and throw the dice? Or do we hand the captaincy back to McCullum, beg forgiveness and ask him to please treat it with respect?

Curiosity remains contagious over who is a) best suited or b) likely to get the New Zealand coaching job as the team's performances fluctuated in the UAE over the past week. The Herald on Sunday's Peter Williams sought the views of a trio who, over the past 60 years, have either played for, captained, coached or selected the New Zealand team.

Mark Richardson, in the same paper, says that he finds it hard to take the two Twenty20 internationals between New Zealand and Pakistan overly seriously.

The domestic summer of cricket kicks off on Tuesday morning with the first round of Plunket Shield matches. And as tvnz.co.nz's Max Bania writes, there are plenty of reasons to get down to your local oval, soak up the sun and support New Zealand's grassroots cricketers.

Never mind that it's only because New Zealand Cricket were unable to secure a new sponsor after State Insurance pulled the pin. After sitting idle for 35 years, the fabled century-old log of wood is to be dusted off and presented to the winners of this year's four-day competition. Second only in prestige and mystique to the Ranfurly Shield, it's a prize that will be dearly coveted by all teams and adds much intrigue to this year's fixtures. The defending champions? Otago, whose then-captain Glenn Turner was the last man to hold the shield aloft at the end of the 1974/75 season.

Hasn't the time come when this power of the players was reined in by their employers, or at least harnessed until there was some semblance of consistency about the team's results? asks Peter Williams in the Herald on Sunday.

Vettori is undoubtedly the best player in the country and in a team that can only be regarded as dreadful under-performers, he wields huge influence simply by virtue of his on-field deeds. Even some of the great New Zealand players and personalities of generations past - like Tom Lowry, captain for the first two tours of England, and manager too for the second in 1931, or John R Reid, captain, star all-rounder, national selector, and de facto coach from 1958 to 1965 - never seemed to pull as many strings as Vettori does today.

Player power in the New Zealand team could rise to new heights if the players successfully lobby for a manager, rather than a coach, to replace Andy Moles, writes Paul Lewis in the Herald on Sunday.

In the same paper, Andrew Alderson looks at the John Wright conundrum - Wright reportedly wants the job but the players aren't exactly falling over themselves with enthusiasm at the prospect.

Adrian Seconi of the Otago Times argues that in the absence of both a coach and a vice- captain, and having been vested with the powers of a selector, Daniel Vettori has too much control over New Zealand cricket.

What is the difference between Daniel Vettori and Brian Tamaki? The Black Caps do not bow when they approach Vettori . . . yet.

Whether it is by circumstance or Machiavellian design, the left-arm spinner has acquired enough power to dim the environmentally friendly and energy-efficient lights over Seddon Park.

He's now a selector, the stand-in coach, the captain, a leading bowler and one of our best batsmen.

Ahead of the opening round of the Plunket Shield, Jonathan Millmow in the Dominion Post runs his eye over the six teams and speaks to the captains about the upcoming season as a whole.

Craig Cumming, which competition would you most like to win?

"Obviously the Twenty20 has the greatest reward and we got to experience that in India last month so we'd love to win that again. Having said that the real focus at the start of the season is on the four-dayers, that's an area we haven't performed as well as we would've liked in and if we start well in that I think everything will flow from there."

In the New Zealand Herald, Dylan Cleaver writes that New Zealand's dismal display against Pakistan wasn't due to their coaching situation.

No, the coaching debacle is too convenient a scapegoat. The real reason for the calamitous performance was that when the blowtorch was applied NZ's batsmen again melted - and again it started from the top.

Aaron Redmond's early becalming meant Brendon McCullum was forced to initiate desert storm, his brief sortie flaming out when he dragged on to his stumps. McCullum's effectiveness at the top of the order seems inextricably linked to the injured Jesse Ryder. They feed off each other's controlled aggression.

Geoff Longley writes in the Press that New Zealand should give John Wright a trial run as coach during the upcoming home series against Pakistan.

There has been a lot of tip-toeing around the issue of whether Wright wants to be involved. Has he expressed official interest and does he want the arduous grind of overseas travel again?

But there is no formal coach at present, and having Wright involved – he is on the NZC staff payroll after all – would be a good way of testing the waters for the players and the prospective coach. This way, Wright could get a feel for the team and the environment and see if they could work together on a longer-term basis, and vice versa.

Brendon McCullum has recently been stripped of his New Zealand vice-captaincy. In the Herald on Sunday, Mark Richardson wonders what the reasoning behind the move is.

Is this simply a case of a good young player getting too big too soon and an ego that needs reeling in?Is it a message to say either put up or shut up? Does it hint that those who may not see things quite like Vettori and/or Glenn Turner are headed for the high jump?
Or has he simply been offering nothing and just caring for himself?

As New Zealand Cricket begin the search for a replacement for the departed Andy Moles, the first thing they must do is settle on the type of person they want, writes David Leggat in the New Zealand Herald.

Tom Moody, if they are starting at the top, and not just because the former Australian allrounder stands an imposing 1.98m. He took over Sri Lanka in 2005 and led them to the World Cup final two years later before heading back to West Australia. He's signed a three-year deal until 2010, and would want serious money. Well worth a hard look.

John Wright, the only New Zealander in the hunt. Would be a popular public choice, a laconic front masking a hard-minded competitor, who made the most of his abilities as a test batsman. Has worked with the batsmen before, and heads the NZC high performance unit. Suggestions he would not be senior players' first choice, but anyone who can keep India on track, as he did for several years, can't be a bad man manager.

Given Andy Moles' resignation as New Zealand coach, Mark Richardson in the Herald on Sunday believes the team is not mature enough for a back-seat co-ordinator. In fact, he says the players need someone with not just CEO-style skills but a highly tuned cricket brain as well.

If NZC wants to take the approach of selecting up-and-coming coaches then they must look very carefully or risk taking a punt.

Perhaps they would do better not to advertise the role but just target the ones they want - to avoid the scenario that may have occurred had they said no to Moles even though he was the final applicant in the race.

Writing in the same paper, Dylan Cleaver claims New Zealand Cricket did not have a lot of luck in their search for John Bracewell's successor, as the IPL brought about a number of highly-paid roles that did not require the fulltime attention that helming New Zealand would.

It is all very well being wise after the event but there was disquiet almost from the get-go. Why didn't they appoint an interim coach - John Wright was under their noses (on the appointments panel, no less) - and wait until they had a compelling candidate?

Instead, they took the path of least resistance, only to find a year into the journey they ran into a rather large obstacle in the form of an emboldened Daniel Vettori, as influential a figure in New Zealand cricket as any before him.

Rather than a mutiny, Moles' ouster has been more like an SOS; and one that New Zealand Cricket couldn't help but answer, writes Richard Boock in the Sunday Star Times.

Moles supporters might have considered some non-committal NZC press releases over the past few days as a reason for hope, but such optimism was always misplaced. To publicly offer any comment apart from support during an employment process would be to effectively premeditate an outcome. That's why so many English football managers are sacked only days after being endorsed by their chairmen. It is the kiss of death.

New Zealand coach Andy Moles may fly out with the squad to the UAE on Tuesday - depending on the state of negotiations - but he won't be around for much longer, writes David Leggat in the New Zealand Herald. It is understood the process is at a point where the two parties are settling on a number to pay out Moles for the remainder of his contract. Leggat believes there are three foreseeable options ...

Moles walks away with a satisfactory payout, perhaps in the region of $300,000, and a short-term stand-in installed for the five limited-overs internationals against Pakistan. If a settlement is not reached, Moles goes to the UAE, on a "business as usual" basis. Or New Zealand could go to UAE with a manager, support staff and the players, with captain Dan Vettori carrying on in an enhanced leadership role.

Jonathan Millmow writes in the Dominion Post that Andy Moles needs to understand that his position has become untenable and must therefore resign as New Zealand's coach.

Mediation begins today and Moles needs to read the signals. He has the lost the dressing room and, no matter how great his love for the game, he must walk away, albeit with some sort of financial settlement.He was contracted through to the 2011 World Cup so, in the short term, should not be fumbling for a bus fare on a wet day.

What a disaster it will be if Moles digs his toes in and takes the team away next week for the one-day series against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi. What good can come of a setup where the coach can no longer speak with conviction? Why prolong the agony? A caretaker coach will not be hard to find among a cast of thousands at NZC.

NZC backed Moles yesterday but, with mediation 24 hours away, what else was it to do? Moles remains a competent coach but the floodlights and the big crowds have caught him out, much the way they do with an average first-class player.

	James Franklin has batted like a lion in first-class cricket, but looks as timid as a mouse at the highest level © Getty Images

OPTION 1 Select James Franklin as a like-for-like straight swap.

Pros: He wants the job, telling his local paper: "I'm hoping [the selectors] think I'm the guy for that. I think I can do a job there for New Zealand. I've done it for years for Wellington, batting at No6 and bowling, so it's nothing different for me." At his best, Franklin would offer the sort of balance a fit Jacob Oram provided, with his cultured left-handed batting and left-arm swing variety with the ball. If you watched him in the nets and knew nothing of his test record, who would think that he was a world-class player rather than a fringe selection.

Cons: "At his best" is the operative statement. Hands up - outside those who regularly attend Wellington's first-class fixtures - anybody who has actually seen Franklin at his best? Over the past three seasons he has batted like a lion in first-class cricket, but looks as timid as a mouse at the highest level. In the field, he carries the appearance of somebody who does not really like bowling. The fact he took a significant drop in his central contract ranking this year indicates the selectors have lost patience in the wait for Franklin to realise his potential.

Jacob Oram's decision to quit Tests to prolong his limited-overs career is a smart one, because he knows his time at the top is running out, writes David Leggat in the New Zealand Herald. It also gives Daniel Vettori the chance to claim the top allrounder's role.

Oram didn't fancy giving away bowling to take his chances as a specialist batsman. He had been a two-for-one player for the last 10 years. Putting away the bowling boots was not on.

	Kyle Mills takes over top spot from Nuwan Kulasekara © AFP

To the surprise of many, New Zealand fast bowler Kyle Mills was rated the best bowler in ODIs by the latest ICC rankings. In the Herald on Sunday, Mark Richardson analyses the ingredients in Mills' bowling that make it so effective.

It is Mills' normal length that gives him this success. He is tall and can bowl into the wicket on a shortish but not a pull-able length. That length is quite effective in the subcontinent.

When Mills has been hit, it has been when he has got a little full or batsmen have attacked him on the up. This is dangerous for them as he does get some movement in the air and can get it off the wicket too.

Combine that with his accuracy and he gets good players out, just as he got Ricky Ponting out in the Champions Trophy final.

In the New Zealand Herald, David Leggat writes that New Zealand's effort at the Champions Trophy bodes well for the future, but not every aspect of team composition is settled.

Out of the tournament New Zealand saw Guptill reinforce his value in the top three; Elliott show he should stay in the middle order for the cool head he brings to the crease; Franklin suggest he is not a frontline first or second-change ODI bowler; and Taylor show he is a top class slip catcher. The key performers? Vettori, Elliott, Guptill, Mills and Bond. Those they needed more from? Taylor, McCullum, Broom, Franklin and Butler.

The biggest question remains what to do with McCullum. It boils down to this: do Vettori and coach Andy Moles - remember, that's now half the national selection panel - want two dashers at the top in a high risk, high reward approach, or move one of McCullum or Ryder down the order in favour of a more measured policy.

Despite having a top five batting line-up with more than acceptable records, New Zealand fail to win enough games. Mark Richardson in the Herald on Sunday says they must deliver the goods in the upcoming Champions Trophy so that the sense of accountability leads to greater organisation in their play.

Two of the most influential ODI players this country has had were Nathan Astle and Chris Cairns.

Their equivalents in the current team are Brendon McCullum and Oram, probably our most highly paid cricketers and thus meant to be world class performers. But they are far from it.

In his blog Sideline Slogger, Paul Holden looks at New Zealand's performances down the years in the Champions Trophy.

New Zealand could only save face during a limp Test series performance against Sri Lanka via Daniel Vettori's batting prowess. They followed it up with a much more convincing show in the Twenty20s. Paul Lewis in the Herald on Sunday finds out why New Zealand is so poor in Tests, or why can't the other Black Caps bat as well as Vettori?

Is Daniel Vettori a better cricketer than Richard Hadlee? Stephen Boock put forward that possibility in a weekend newspaper article that caused conniptions from the New Zealand Herald's Chris Rattue.

I just about snapped over my crackle and pop at this point. NO. Vettori is not a better player than Hadlee and never will be. And no, he might not even be our second greatest player.

Yes, Vettori is already one of our great cricketers. But how could anyone jump to the next conclusion, that an average to good spinner by world standards could somehow be rated above one of the greatest quicks who ever donned a lovely Aran knit pullover?

	Daniel Vettori is not even listed among the Northern Districts squad for the coming season. © Associated Press

With the national side being the only team Vettori plays for in New Zealand, the most intriguing aspect of his new role as a selector, as well as being the captain, will be how he gets a real take on the form and quality of those players next in line for selection. Peter Williams asks the questions in the Herald on Sunday.

So when it comes to making the bold new picks in the future, will the Black Caps captain actually be as educated as the full-time selectors Glenn Turner and Mark Greatbatch, and the adviser John Wright? There's no doubt Vettori is well placed to move the underperformers on from the national team but that's just half of the selectors' job.

On the flip side, Paul Lewis, in the same paper, gives his reasons why Vettori's appointment is appropriate, despite surprising objections.

If New Zealand was batting to save a draw or needing runs to win, who would you want at the crease? Many would say Brendon McCullum; fair enough. Increasingly some would say Ross Taylor.

But most would probably plump, for sheer guts and likely achievement, for Vettori. Give him his head now to populate the Black Caps with players like himself, as much as possible.

There is also a real fear of burnout just as New Zealand's best player is operating in his prime. Add to that, the worry for his team-mates, his very friends, who now have to think twice about the way Vettori views them. Duncan Johnstone has more in Stuff.co.nz.

An orthodox finger-spinner succeeding in a game where, until recently, only those with a spare ace up their sleeves, or a party trick with their elbow were receiving the fame and acclaim, reveals the sheer enormity of Vettori's bowling achievements. Richard Boock in the Sunday Star Times salutes the bowler on getting to 300 Test wickets and 3000 runs.

Jonathan Trott's a well-travelled man. The South African-born batsman, now with the England Test team, owes a part of his success to New Zealand. It's easy to forget the summers he spent as an overseas professional with Otago. Andrew Alderson, in the New Zealand Herald, writes on Trott's Kiwi connections.

So the South African-born allrounder can be slotted into the 'ours' category by virtue of coming out almost four years ago. Further entrenching his Kiwi credentials are the fact his dad Ian works as the coach at Auckland's Parnell club six months of the year. Trott also has a sister living in Auckland.

In the New Zealand Herald, David Leggat analyses the implications of elevating Andy Moles and Daniel Vettori to the selection panel, a move which has raised eyebrows. The idea of drafting Vettori may not be so bad, because he has a hard-headed attitude and knows his mind. But having Moles on the panel could affect the other players, who may not be able to confide in him as they once used to.

Will a player feel as happy about baring his soul to someone who has a direct hand on his test place? Moles will argue his relationship with the players is good, and this is a natural next step in his job. And to be fair he is not the first coach on a selection panel.

New Zealand's legendary allrounder has released his third book, Changing Pace, which focuses more on his post-retirement days, his dad, knighthood, health problems and life as a selector for eight years. Jonathan Millmow caught up with him in Wellington. Read on in the Dominion Post.

"Writing about those emotional experiences can be a healing thing and perhaps others can take some inspiration as well," he says.

Daniel Vettori has emerged from a systems shake-up a more powerful figure in New Zealand cricket since, and possibly including, Stephen Fleming, writes Dylan Cleaver in the New Zealand Herald. As he has given himself until 2011 before handing over captaincy, most likely to Brendon McCullum, Vettori will be working quickly to establish a blueprint for success at Test level.

The one area where Vettori would no doubt like more influence is in selection. This has previously been seen as a big no-no because of fears it can lead to factionalism within the side and perceptions of favouritism can create problems in the dressing room.

For the past three years, the former Dunedin art gallery building at Logan Park has stood in the way of the Dunedin City Council and Otago Cricket Association's shared vision to expand the University Oval cricket ground. A resolution now appears imminent. Adrian Seconi has more in the Otago Daily Times.

Daniel Vettori and his team-mates have chosen to represent their country over the big bucks of the IPL. But it was not an easy decision for the six IPL contracted players to make. Jonathan Millmow of the Dominion Post, however, feels that playing for the country must be given priority without a moment's hesitation. Millnow thinks the New Zealand team is not performing at its best in international cricket, and the fans at least deserve a full strength national team.

The whole cash-over-country debate comes down to personal choice. Does a healthy bank balance bring you more joy than a test hundred or five-wicket bag?

Can you put a price on conversations with children and grandchildren in years to come?

"Dad, did you ever score a hundred against Australia?"

"No son, but I had a strike-rate of 143 for the Bengal Whatstheirnames."

How did Gareth Hopkins get a central contract and then not get selected as the backup wicketkeeper for Test cricket - especially when Reece Young had been playing as a specialist batsman for Auckland because Hopkins kept wickets? Also, if Indian-born legspinner Tarun Nethula made the team as the top wicket-taker in the State Championship, shouldn't the top run-scorer also make the cut? These are among the 16 questions Paul Holden asks the New Zealand selectors on his blog, Sideline Slogger.

Does anyone believe the line that Franklin is better off playing English county cricket rather than turning out for New Zealand A? Better off in terms of pounds earned for Gloucestershire, certainly (and good on him), but it looks as if Franklin has been axed and told he wouldn't be close to being on the next flight into Sri Lanka even if he was in India with the A team.

Hamish McDouall provides his assessment of how the players have done over the domestic summer. Read the 'Weather Report' on his blog Googlies and Grass Stains.

When certain New Zealand players asked for some "clarity" about dates for the New Zealand home summer, it was obvious they were keen to make sure those didn't cut across their IPL commitments, writes Dylan Cleaver in the New Zealand Herald. This is the modern reality, apparently.

People are quick to put the boot into Twenty20 for razing the cricket landscape but Twenty20 isn't necessarily the problem - the IPL and the salaries it can offer is.

Can you blame Jacob Oram for wanting some guarantees he is going to be able to fulfil his $1 million contract with the Chennai Super Kings? He's probably not going to earn much more than a measly $250,000 (cough, splutter) playing for his country over the next 12 months.

Dylan Cleaver assesses New Zealand's list of centrally contracted players for the year 2009-10, and writes that the number of strugglers in the list provides an indication of the dearth of cricketing talent in the country. Read his article in the New Zealand Herald.

Can you honestly say Aaron Redmond, Craig Cumming, Scott Styris, Peter Fulton, Kane Williamson, Nathan McCullum, Daryl Tuffey, Mark Gillespie, Peter Ingram and Jamie How lose much in comparison to the stragglers on this list? That does not equate to depth either, just the fact New Zealand has become adept at churning out middling cricketers.

With New Zealand's contract list is set to be released over the next week, Dylan Cleaver casts his eye at who will make the cut and who won't. He writes in the New Zealand Herald that the sun may have set on Scott Styris' international career, and that Peter McGlashan has slipped down the wicketkeeping pecking order.

Will Shane Bond walk right back into a contract? The criterion is to project the value the player will bring to New Zealand in the next 12 months so logic would say yes, but it still might be a bridge too far for those at NZC disappointed he left for the Indian Cricket League.

The ICC will meet to discuss the Future Tours Programme next week and serious noises are being made that the top four want to play each other more often, which means the rest could be sidelined in the new programme, writes Dylan Cleaver in the Herald on Sunday.

In fact India hold nearly all of the cards. The commercial success of the IPL has added another revenue stream to coffers that were already bulging with broadcasting cash, the Champions League will add more, and they lord over the "Asian bloc" that dominates the ICC voting. In scale, New Zealand rates as no more than a pimple on the BCCI's backside.

In the space of about 12 hours late this week, Shane Bond's international career took a substantial step towards revival, while Andrew Symonds' was placed in the round filing bin. But the developments with Bond will be watched with earnest. Will he still have the old zip? Nature has a way of providing answers to questions like that but the word is he's still pretty sharp, writes David Leggat in the New Zealand Herald.

The public reaction will be interesting. There will inevitably be a school of thought that he placed his chips and must live with that. But there are times when the need to move ahead is paramount. There's one other thing about Bond. Most people are capable of engendering a variety of emotions depending on one's dealings with them.

Jacob Oram has always impressed me as a young man of maturity and integrity and nobody can doubt his honesty here. But this is one of the best players New Zealand has produced in the past 20 years and he's prepared to walk away from what my generation regard as the premium form of cricket, writes Peter Williams in the Herald on Sunday.

That's after a 31-Test career of essentially unfulfilled potential, in order to be fit and available to indulge in a series of meaningless slogfests for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Matches that last 40 overs are deemed more worthwhile than those lasting 400. Oram won't be the last high-quality international cricketer aged around 30 and troubled by injury who'll flag test matches just as he should be approaching his prime.

In his assessment of the New Zealand players over the domestic summer, Hamish McDouall classifies the performances between the two extremes of 'Scorchio' and 'Chilled to the bone'. Read more on his blog Googlies and Grass Stains.

ROOM TEMPERATURE

Tim McIntosh - Honestly I thought we had found the gritty kind of opening batsman - an Edgar or Richardson - who would match someone expansive like How or Redmond or Guptill. He was a limpet with pads on. But India didn't find him as immovable, and questions hang over his technique. At nearly thirty years old it's a bit late to repair.

	Jesse Ryder: A big plus for New Zealand © Getty Images

New Zealand's six-month Test journey began in steamy Chittagong and ended in wet and windy Wellington this week, notes David Leggat, and the bare bones of New Zealand's nine-match campaign aren't impressive. Because in those nine Tests there was just one win.

In those nine Tests New Zealand fielded 19 players. Five played in all nine Tests - Daniel Vettori, Jesse Ryder, Ross Taylor, Brendon McCullum and Iain O'Brien. In a country this size, wonders Leggat, are there 19 Test-quality cricketers?

Read on in the New Zealand Herald.

In the Dominion Post, Jonathan Millmow, Fred Woodcock and Sam Worthington cast their cynical eyes over the good, the bad and the ugly of all levels of cricket this summer in what they call 'The A to Z of the cricket summer'.

A is for the Average Test team that we have become, average being the kind way to put it (after all, it is the end of the season). On the upside, in Jesse Ryder, Ross Taylor and Mark Guptill, we might, just might, have better times on the horizon. Can we have Shane Bond back too, please?

B is for Blog. Respect to Iain O'Brien for his sometimes wacky but always entertaining blog entries on the internet. Luckily for Obber, they weren't the only things keeping his name in the headlines, as he had a pretty decent summer on the field, too.

The list goes on ...

On the first day of the third Test between New Zealand and India, the bleachers and embankment were all but full, and it was only on the second day that a packed crowd was visible. Throw in the fine weather and it has been two days of Test match atmosphere that the Basin reserves for the Wellington faithful, who must surely pine for the return of the Boxing Day test. Mark Richardson in the New Zealand Herald has more.

It's hard to call the Boxing Day test traditional, having only started in this country in 1998 and been played five times.

However, in that time for no other reason than it fell on Boxing Day, it quickly earned the "traditional" tag and so when taken away got the expected cries of foul play. The "tradition" was broken by the ever-growing threat to test cricket in general - known as commercial realities.

Cricketers' lunch at Eden Park this week included meat, salad, bread, fruit - and a bowl of dhal. The Indian vegetable dish could serve as a symbol of the new look for Auckland cricket, says Bob Pearce in the New Zealand Herald, because Indians are increasingly the face of cricket in the cosmopolitan city.

And they play it well. Twenty-year-old Jeet Raval, who emigrated from Gujarat four years ago (where he was an age-group representative but as a bowler), scored 256 for Auckland on the outer oval in only his third first-class game. Left-arm spinner Roneel Hira has been a key member of the one-day team for a couple of seasons, Tarun Nethula has shown that his leg-spin can dismiss the best and off-spinner Bhupinder Singh is awaiting his chance. Raval and Nethula are both in the Auckland team to contest the State Championship final against Central Districts.

In the same daily, former New Zealand opener Mark Richardson believes the Wellington faithful must surely pine for the return of the Boxing Day Test to the Basin Reserve.

The surviving members of New Zealand's 1969 side that toured England, India and Pakistan got together in Wellington for a reunion. New Zealand Herald's David Leggat remembers the team's achievements and writes why it deserves a place in New Zealand cricket's pantheon.

When they beat India by 167 runs at Nagpur in October of that year, it was New Zealand's first win in India and only the country's sixth win ever. Consider that New Zealand have won just once more in that most passionate of cricket nations and you get an idea of the scale of their achievement. Sadly, one of the key figures in that win, left-arm spinner Hedley Howarth, who took nine for 100 in the match, was not there. He died last November. Neither were other notable players, Dick Motz, Bob Cunis and Ken Wadsworth, who have also passed away. A few weeks after Nagpur, this group won for the first time in Pakistan, beating their hosts by five wickets at Lahore. When they defiantly drew the final test on a dramatic last day at Dacca, it was New Zealand's first series victory overseas.

Daryl Tuffey, the man nicknamed after Police Academy's High Tower, is certainly good enough to be in contention for a recall if all the respective parties allow him back due to his links to the ICL. Paul Holden is one of his backers. He also explains why Tuffey isn't the luckiest bloke around, in his blog Sideline Slogger for stuff.co.nz

There was the infamous "milkshake incident" that resulted in the governing body hanging him out to dry with a release to the world's cricketing media announcing an independent inquisition by Hugh Rennie QC, an over-the-top disciplinary hearing, and a needless fine of $1000 for breaching his contract and "bringing the game of cricket into disrepute". All for the sake of a home video which he admitted existed, although it never saw the light of day and was never in the league of Pam and Tommy proportions (?!) anyway. The worst element here was the genuine lack of support for a player who had made a mistake and could have done with a hand rather than all-out vilification.

Thomas B. Perry, in his blog on Cricketmystery.com, calls on Shane Bond to return to the national side following New Zealand Cricket's decision to allow players to compete for selection if they end their association with the ICL.

You have no doubt witnessed the fact that event though we had an hour and two full days to get the Indians out in their second innings, our bowlers failed to do so.
........
I am sure that at least one IPL team will come clambering for your services, but you know as well as we do that there is far better cricket to be played against the Indians in a game that starts at the end of this week in Wellington.

Is the current Indian batting line-up the best ever to visit New Zealand? Dylan Cleaver asked John Reid, Warren Lees and Mark Richardson for their opinion in the New Zealand Herald.

All three agree this Indian line-up compares favourably with any team that has toured here before, though Lees and Reid are both dismissive of the attack they are about to face and the conditions in which they are predicted to make hay.

The top and tail of the New Zealand test team will be the focal points for the national selectors when they get out the whiteboard in Hamilton today, writes David Leggat in the New Zealand Herald.

The lack of first-class cricket in the past few weeks means they may be forced to pick some players on trust, and past performances. They are relying on evidence from one-day matches - domestic and international. The season schedule has done them no favours.

Over the last couple of series, the dilemma of where Brendon McCullum should be batting in one-day internationals has reared its head once more, writes Mark Richardson in the Herald on Sunday.

If McCullum can take the same mentality he took in his two 60 not outs in the T20s into the ODIs then those scores would convert to possible 150s. Scores like that achieve wins. I was surprised at his comments of displeasure with his first match-winning effort in Christchurch. Sure, it was punctuated with mistimed shots and lacked the fluency he would desire, but he achieved something vitally important in one's development as a player in any sport. He won ugly.

Also in the Herald on Sunday, David Leggat writes that Scott Styris' omission from the ODI squad "could realistically have drawn the curtain down on the international career of one of New Zealand's best-performed allrounders".

An editorial in the Indian Express takes the case of former New Zealand fast bowler Ewen Chatfield, who now drives a taxi in Wellington, and makes the point that cricket needs more IPLs and ICLs, free of boundaries of nationality and monopoly, as forms of employment.

International cricket has lost for ever the sight of Shane Bond steaming in, getting unsuspected pace and bounce from dying wickets by bending his fragile back, of Craig McMillan’s extraordinary, effortless, steely-eyed hitting. That McMillan and Bond should have made this choice isn’t surprising; like cab-driving Chatfield, McMillan had tried being a car salesman and Bond a policeman — while they were still playing. McMillan, the one year he wasn’t given a central contract, felt that without quitting, he couldn’t feed his young family.

An editorial in the New Zealand Herald says that the country's government should not allow the tour of Zimbabwe to go ahead.

John Key has given a clear indication that he is prepared to order the New Zealand cricket team not to tour Zimbabwe in July. There, it seems, the matter will rest while the game's governing body talks things over with the Government. That should not be the case. This is not a matter over which the Prime Minister need procrastinate. He does not want the tour, New Zealand Cricket does not want it and most New Zealanders do not want it. The cricketers should be told forthwith they are not going to Zimbabwe.

Jonathan Millmow says in the Dominion Post Brad Haddin plumbed new depths by disturbing the bails with his gloves for the "bowled" of Neil Broom in Sunday's one-day match.

Breaking the stumps when a batsman misses the ball is a stunt normally the domain of schoolyard bullies and Haddin would be wise not to watch a replay of his gamesmanship at the WACA. A good sport would have at the least asked for confirmation from the match officials.

Paul Holden writes in his Sideline Slogger blog that Haddin deserves to incur the wrath of the New Zealand cricketing public.

The former international umpire Darrell Hair, speaking in the Sydney Morning Herald, says the delivery should have been a no-ball.

What's the best way for New Zealand to annoy Australia? Go back to the tried and tested formula of bowling the nagging slower bowlers, writes Adam Parore in the New Zealand Herald. Daniel Vettori should bring himself on as soon as Ricky Ponting walks in and force the errors.

The idea, especially against newer and inexperienced players, is to force them into hitting the ball through the field early in their innings, rather than allowing them to use the pace of the ball on the good Australian wickets. There is nothing worse for a new batter than getting to the wicket and finding he has to get all the pace on the ball.

David Leggat, in the New Zealand Herald, previews the Chappell-Hadlee and compares two teams on the rebuild. Australia may have been toppled by the South Africans at home but it doesn't make them pushovers by any means.

Whenever a New Zealand team heads to Australia, they board the plane armed with a strong dose of optimism. There's invariably a feeling that this will be a tour when they will put one over the big boys. Partly that's down to a natural relish at tackling our nearest cricket neighbour, at wanting to prove we can mix it successfully with them, and partly because they have always been New Zealand's biggest, and favourite, challenge.

In the same paper, Leggat lists the top ten Trans-Tasman moments. Not surprisingly, the under-arm incident heads the list.

	Brendon McCullum: The Che Guevara of world cricket perhaps? © Getty Images

If the good of cricket is at stake here then it is far easier to forgive Andrew Symonds for his little outburst, aimed at Brendon McCullum, than it is to pardon the men who claim to legitimately run the game. Symonds' "lump of s..." comment is under investigation by the holier than thou authorities, who, if they cared to look for them, have more significant problems to investigate, writes Chris Rattue in the New Zealand Herald.

Under the influence of alcohol during a radio interview, and maybe having a bad day, the Brendon McCullum subject might simply have got in his way. However, the issue itself shouldn't be wantonly filed away just because it was raised in a hopelessly inadequate manner.

It is utterly brilliant to have a New Zealand batsman deemed to be good enough to even make the first eleven of any Australian cricket side. Paul Holden in his blog Sideline Slogger lists 10 reasons why McCullum ringing in was okay.

It is the beginning of the revolution. And McCullum is the pin-up poster boy of these shifting Indian sands. The Che Guevara of world cricket perhaps?

New Zealand Cricket has decided to waste more time, effort and, no doubt, money in its latest attempt to reinvent the wheel, writes Lynn McConnell in the Sportal website. What is it about a country as poorly resourced in cricket as New Zealand that it keeps falling into administrative holes time after time, the writer asks.

Hamish McDouall in his blog Googlies and Grass Stains recalls watching the 1993 Shell Cup final in Carisbrook, and lists three reasons why domestic cricket in New Zealand is currently on the decline - television, the lack of international stars, and the poor scheduling by NZC.

The first is obviously television. New Zealand is among the highest TV watchers in the world, and for the ordinary bloke in Caversham, a cricket dilettante who might wander down to the Brook in ordinary circumstances in 1993 might prefer to stay at home in 2009 and watch a movie on Sky, or the A1 GP qualifying, or some tissue-strength documentary like When Monks Go Bad.

Huw Richards, writing in the International Herald Tribune, pays tribute to Daniel Vettori, who turns 30 tomorrow, for being one of the greatest servants of New Zealand cricket, and for the way he's led his team by example in times of declining fortunes.

Vettori epitomizes that aptitude for maximizing talent. It was evident when he played his first five-day test for New Zealand in February 1997, only a few days after his 18th birthday - becoming his country's youngest player in its 82 years as a test-playing nation - that he was a spin bowler of authentic quality.

The arts that have served him throughout the ensuing 12 years were already evident. He was a left-hander who bowled with great control and a range of subtle variation in flight, line and pace. That control and subtlety make him a tough bowler for batsmen to attack. They have also made him a master in the one-day game, where he is rated the best bowler in the world.

The most striking development in his game, though, has been his improvement as a batsman. He began as the last man in the order, but has worked his way up through a tough-minded application of his abilities.

More on Brendon McCullum's signing for New South Wales and the repercussions it has on the global game.This time it is from Paul Lewis in the New Zealand Herald, who says that there's something here that doesn't sit right. The rationalisation from New Zealand cricket advanced the astonishing logic that NSW will give McCullum the chance to participate in the lucrative Champions League Twenty20 series in India if his IPL team, the Kolkata Knight Riders, don't qualify. How's that again?

Dylan Cleaver questions the composition of New Zealand's ODI squad for Australia, with the inclusion of Brendon Diamanti and Trent Boult over more experienced players. The selectors may have got it right this season with Martin Guptill and Tim McIntosh but can they hope that any name they draw out of the hat now will make them look like geniuses? Read on in the Herald on Sunday.

If only that were the most startling selection in this squad of 14 picked to wrest the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy off an Australian side that can no longer claim greatness. Diamanti, you could argue, is a straight swap for Jacob Oram, though if it were a debating society you'd be praying to land on the negative side of that proposal.

In the same paper, Mark Richardson feels Diamanti's selection was logical given his ability to bowl yorkers at the death overs and contain the scoring in the Powerplay overs.

While the fluid and unpredictable nature of cricket requires players to be relatively flexible in approach, the time is soon coming when the weighting on traditional play versus specialised play will reverse - seeing skills tailored to specific areas of the 50-over game. Players will spend far more time and even spend their total practice time working on things like yorkers, slower balls, hitting yorkers and slower balls, ramping bouncers, various sweeps and the like.

Look for controversy and Vettori in the same sentence and you'll come up with a very small list. He's the yin to Kevin Pietersen's yang and Vettori would be quite happy not to accumulate the sort of headlines over the course of a career that KP generated in a month, writes Dylan Cleaver in the New Zealand Herald.

Also Ii the New Zealand Herald, Mark Richardson feels that New Zealand are yet to develop an effective strategy regarding when to take the batting Powerplay in ODIs.

Why am I so unimpressed by sportsmen's drinking escapades? Is it just a middle-aged man sneering at modern youth or is there now a really serious binge drinking problem - worse than, say, 30 years ago? asks Peter Williams in the New Zealand Herald.

Maybe if the media scrutiny was tougher then, attitudes might be different now. For years, sports reporting was a mates' business. I broadcast the Test in Christchurch and knew Geoff had tested positive. Never mentioned it on air. Did I suggest why that bowler performed so abysmally at Bloemfontein? No. The reporting of drunken incidents involving top players is now widespread. So it should be. Until there's acceptance from players and fans that heavy drinking by young men in this country is a serious problem, it won't go away.

Over the next few days, New Zealand's national selectors will digest numbers, take in two more rounds of State Shield cricket and make their plans, says David Leggat in the New Zealand Herald. All contenders are expected to be playing State cricket, the recovering Jacob Oram and Kyle Mills possible exceptions. Don't expect any surprises when the squad, tipped to be 13, is named next week.

Do New Zealand drop Jesse Ryder or do they fly in experts? Is it carrot or stick for the errant wild child? Hamish McDouall in his blog Googlies and Grass Stains believes Ryder can be condemned, only if the culture that spawned him is corrected.

It’s got to come from Jesse himself. Jesse can either keep living the starlight lifestyle he does, and operate at less than optimum on the cricket field and be a minor folk hero - and be selected on his form not his potential; or deal with his addiction and become a truly great player - for everybody recognises his luxuriant talent.

Paul Holden in the Sideline Slogger takes a look at the good, bad and the ugly sides of West Indies' tour of New Zealand.

New Zealand's selectors have indicated they do not rate the country's domestic cricket as a strong enough standard of play for form alone to enable selection to international level, feels Mark Richardson. Richardson accepts the selection of Martin Guptill (who made a century on ODI debut) as a player with an untried X-factor, but believes the initial non-selection of the currently red-hot Mathew Sinclair spoke volumes. He writes in the New Zealand Herald:

Sinclair is not alone when it comes to former players tried and discarded and whose re-selection looks tremendously unlikely, regardless of the figures they post. Matthew Bell's 346 runs at 86 early in the season screamed for a recall which did not come; nor did one come for Craig Cumming who has been in top form this year too - averaging above 50 in the championship and shield. Rather, Jamie How kept his place in the hope he would come right.

In the same newspaper, Paul Lewis writes that England's current captain-coach fiasco makes New Zealand Cricket look good. New coach Andy Moles, says Lewis, appears to have been a good antidote to the loop-de-loop theoretical spaghetti of the John Bracewell era and, so far at least, seems to be a sensible man who is sensibly addressing the shortcomings of the team he has inherited.

Dylan Cleaver speaks to Peter Guptill, the proud father of the player who scored the second-highest ODI century on debut, about the time he called up Jeff Crowe. Martin was 13 and lying in an Auckland hospital bed getting used to the idea he was going to live the rest of his life with two toes on his left foot. But Peter used his contacts to get in touch with Crowe, then manager of the New Zealand team, and a visit from Stephen Fleming followed.

Another NZH columnist, Peter Williams, says that it's a measure of Glenn Turner's love for the game of cricket that, 40 years after his first association with the New Zealand team, he's still intimately involved as, effectively, the convener of selectors.

The selections of two new batsmen (Martin Guptill and Neil Broom) for today's ODI at Eden Park gives an insight into the importance of the modern A tours for the national selectors, writes Adam Parore in the Weekend Herald.

Before the days of those trips, players would jump from domestic first-class or one-day cricket straight into the national team. Some made the step up, others didn't. But now the selectors have more tools at their disposal when it comes to assessing the merits of cricketers ... Think of Tim Southee, Jesse Ryder and Daniel Flynn, all now integral members of the New Zealand team, either in the ODI or test side, or both.

Many times in recent years I've tried to work out why and exactly when a game that captivated me for so long somehow lost my interest. And I wonder how many of us there are, writes John Roughan in the Weekend Herald.

Two months ago the idea of making his New Zealand debut against the West Indies would not have entered Martin Guptill's head, writes David Leggat in the New Zealand Herald.

Suffering a potentially career-threatening injury can do that to sporting ambitions. At the end of October the tall, lean Auckland batsman dislocated his right knee batting in a practice match at Whangarei. Gone until New Year was the early prognosis of a painful injury. But, in medical talk, he 'rehabbed' remarkably well, regained his fine touch of last summer and yesterday was confirmed as one of two debutants in the side to play the West Indies at Eden Park in the fourth ODI tomorrow.

	Million Dollar Test baby: Jesse Ryder © Getty Images

The spells for New Zealand players under the Indian Twenty20 sun will do wonders for their cricket by letting them blast away shoulder to shoulder with the game's superstars, and help them come to grips with playing in the subcontinent. But the action-starved crowds in New Zealand have every right to ask if they are getting a good deal, and if what many of them still consider the real game is being tainted by the Twenty20 craze. Chris Rattue in the New Zealand Herald has more.

These Million Dollar Test Babes are set for life, and the moment is fast approaching when Southee, Ryder and all will face the difficult choice of whether they drive to the next rain-sodden cricketing scrapheap in this country in a Porsche or a Lamborghini.

Paul Holden in his blog Sideline Slogger presents the second part of the 2008 Miscellaneous Cricket Awards. If you haven't, read the first part here.

In the New Zealand Herald, Chris Rattue salutes Australia for helping set tremendous Test standards and featuring in most of the best series, but says that they also need to realise that they can't always rule the game. And in his native New Zealand, Rattue believes five days of solid Test action from Napier did its best to contribute to the class of Test cricket and its refusal to go under.

We never thought the day would arrive when cricketers could earn telephone numbers, but it is even more surprising to find a commentator who dishes out 0800 numbers for restorative cures. It certainly shouldn't make the rest of us feel better, but the cricket certainly did. Neither New Zealand nor the West Indies is a great team, but they've conjured up a match that has been tense and entertaining. Who said test cricket was dead, and why should the game face such a challenge from within?

It almost slipped by unnoticed as Daniel Vettori took his place among the game's elite allround cricketers, writes David Leggat in the New Zealand Herald.

When he got his 29th and last run in New Zealand's first innings against West Indies, it took him to 3000 Test runs, to sit alongside 285 wickets. He became the seventh player to reach the 3000-run, 250-wicket double, and the second New Zealander, after Sir Richard Hadlee, who retired in 1990 with the then world record 431 wickets to go with 3124 runs.

Some team nick-names grow on you, but there are those that don't. The New Zealand Herald's David Leggat wants to know what's wrong with being called the New Zealand cricket team.

The other day in a conversation with New Zealand seamer Iain O'Brien, he spoke of what it means to be known as a test cricketer. "Every day is a dream come true. To call myself a test cricketer is pretty cool," he said. And I'll bet if he was asked how he wanted to be known, it would be as a New Zealand test cricketer, not a Black Caps cricketer. To be fair, most of his teammates most likely privately feel the same.

Respected cricket writer Lynn McConnell, writing on sportal.co.nz, says that New Zealand Cricket is in a mess of its own making.

It is all to do with the administration of the game and the leadership style of chief executive Justin Vaughan.

In the years since the radical restructuring of the game that occurred as a result of the Hood Report which was produced in the aftermath of the centenary season, it is clear that morale among the administrative staff of NZC has never been lower.

Already a significant number of staff have left the organisation and an ongoing fiasco over the status of New Zealand team manager Lindsay Crocker is holding the organisation up to ridicule

McConnell, never one to rock the boat unless it needs rocking, concludes by calling for change.

It is time for some real leadership for emerge in cricket or the game is doomed to suffer potentially irreparable damage, not so much at the upper levels of the game, but in those areas below which are so dependent on public support for their very survival.

The prospect of the fallout from that damage does not bear thinking about, but unless there is drastic change then it will be more than thinking that is required.

	Rudi Koertzen is the third umpire in Dunedin where the review system is being trialled for the first time in New Zealand © Getty Images

The new umpire referral system offers plenty to the game, minimising unjust dismissals or unfair non-dismissals and adding a little drama, writes Mark Richardson in the Herald on Sunday.

I originally thought it would not work simply because of the defensiveness in the world of adjudicating officialdom, in all sports. I questioned whether umpires would be prepared to have their decisions overturned for fear of being left red-faced out in the middle. It would appear, following a meeting between the ICC officials and the Sky TV commentary team before the current Test, that the umpires are quite happy to accept their mistakes so long as the right semantics are adhered to.

The referral system in operation here for the first time has generated plenty of interest, but the possible spinoffs might end up being more fascinating than the concept itself, writes Dylan Cleaver in the Herald on Sunday.

You may well see batsmen taking guard on off stump when playing the likes of Daniel Vettori, who possesses a wonderful arm ball that often cannons into the front pad with no reward. An off stump guard will help them get their front pad outside the line of off stump, negating the chance of a leg before as long as they're playing a shot.

In the same paper, Dylan Cleaver also looks back at some of the great moments in cricket history which might have ended differently if the umpires of yesteryear had access to video reviews.

A definition of irony is learning about batting from Chris Martin. And that's just the kind of comment he probably doesn't want to read, writes Michael Donaldson in the Sunday Star Times.

Is Martin upset he's so maligned?
"Kind of," he says, scratching his shaved head. "I always feel like my wicket sums up our whole batting performance `here comes the No11, he's not going to be around long' boom, gone and we're all out in 50 overs and that sums up our whole day. I'm the exclamation mark on a poor performance."

There have been delays upon delays in Dunedin for New Zealand and West Indies' Test match, and Dylan Cleaver, writing in the New Zealand Herald, has slammed the authorities for their lack of preparation.

At Brisbane, it rained so hard the Gabba was reduced to a lake. The next morning, play started on time at 10am. Yesterday, despite there being nary a spittle of rain since the previous evening, a ball was not delivered until 2.45pm.

That borders on farcical.

Until such time as the Otago Cricket Association or New Zealand Cricket invests in a decent drainage system and super-soppers, the University Oval should not host another test.

Bad weather is one thing, bad resources quite another.

It's tough going for Iain O'Brien, both with his blog and after the trying series in Australia, but scoring 36 in partnership of 80 while playing 'Club Cricket' should do wonders for him, ahead of the first Test against West Indies in Dunedin on Thursday. Read more.

New Zealand’s team to face West Indies from Thursday is not a bad one, but “an odd one”, according to Jonathan Millmow in the Dominion Post.

Chris Martin dropped when he is running into form, Aaron Redmond passed over after getting within touching distance of a century against Australia at Adelaide.

Filling out forms became an issue at the end of John Bracewell’s reign and Chris Rattue looks at the situation in the New Zealand Herald.

Tim McIntosh would have been within his rights to be disappointed and disillusioned with being continually overlooked, especially when you consider the procession of openers through the Test selectors’ turnstile since he debuted for Auckland in 1999. Paul Holden in his blog Sideline Slogger digs deeper.

Hamish Macdougall in his blog Googlies and Grass Stains congratulates the new selectors for showing chutzpah, confidence and courage and hopes the batsmen play with similar virtues after the 'spring cleaning'.

	Tim McIntosh will make his New Zealand debut at 29 © Getty Images

In the New Zealand Herald Mark Richardson believes McIntosh will have an advantage making his debut at 29.

The advantage of making one's debut a little later in life, and I speak from experience here, is you are most likely to be pretty set in your ways. You know your game by that stage and have a sound set of basics you know work for you. You would have experienced form fluctuations and should be able to minimise the troughs by referring to the past. You know you are about to take your game to the next level but understand that it is the only game you have and just have to rely on it.

In the same paper, Paul Lewis reviews John Bracewell's tenure as New Zealand coach and writes that his biggest failure was not to instill in his team the same fighting qualities he possessed as a player.

Craig McMillan is surprised at Southee's absence and wonders what sort of a message it will send to the young player. He also disagrees with the selection of McIntosh in his Sunday News column.

I would still have gone with Matthew Bell for his experience over Tim McIntosh coming in for Aaron Redmond. Aaron was probably our best test performer in Adelaide, so many might consider him unlucky. But after seven tests I'm not convinced he's got the technique to be a long-term test opener.

The Waikato Times' Ian Anderson has devised a 12-step recovery programme for New Zealand which includes asking coach Andy Moles to solve the team's inability to get big scores, find a bowler to spearhead the attack and find players who have shown they are willing to fight hard enough to win Tests.

In the Sunday Star Times Richard Boock writes that though Bracewell didn't have the results to show, no one could doubt his commitment.

But his colleague John Dybvig disagrees. In the same paper, Dybvig criticises Bracewell's methods and writes that filling out forms, evaluating your peers and touchy-feely discussions about how your inner self is doing will not erase the one simple fact about sport: hard work and fundamentals never die.

What the Black Caps need is Mark Richardson. The other night on The Crowd Goes Wild Richardson poured withering scorn on the batting efforts of the Black Caps in their second test against Australia ... he actually used the medium (pictures) to explain several points on batting technique he showed what they did correctly and then showed footage of incredibly crap technique (his words) and plainly shouted with passion that it wasn't good enough because it was "batting 101" and that the Black Caps were in reality just slack.

He says he gave it an "honest shot" but John Bracewell admits his stats as New Zealand coach are far from impressive in an interview to Jonathan Millmow in the Dominion Post.

"I feel as though I've given it a honest shot but in terms of pure statistics or results New Zealand Cricket wanted us to be No1 in world cricket in both forms of the game and we didn't reach that, so if you look at it like that I've been a failure."

That New Zealand have lost an enormous amount of experience over a short period of time is obvious after their latest Test series against Australia. Former players have breathed a sigh of relief that John Bracewell’s controversial tenure as coach is over, as the general consensus is that the failures of Bracewell and his support staff, in terms of developing the Test team, helped New Zealand to their current ranking.

Hamish McDoual, in his blog, Googlies and Grass Stains, looks back at Bracewell's last Test as coach and says it is time for an audit. Using an appropriate “accountant” scale, McDoual starts to assess.

Paul Holden in his blog Sideline Slogger sums up the second Test between Australia and New Zealand in Adelaide and is very relieved it wasn't a three-match series.

Jonathan Millmow, writing on stuff.co.nz, watches a child on the Adelaide Oval provide the best batting of the fourth morning of the second Test, which New Zealand lost by an innings.

The wee bloke played every shot in the book over the space of five minutes but he kept the ball on the carpet, ran like the wind and had his socks pulled up. He looked every bit a cricketer, something no one in the New Zealand top order did yesterday. Even accounting for their inexperience and the quality of opposition, New Zealand's specialist batsmen were an embarrassment to their country.

It's unfair to judge Andy Moles negatively simply because many fans and media were plumping for other, more high-profile possibilities. Judge him after he's had enough time in the job to have an effect, writes Mark Richardson in the Herald on Sunday.

The reality is New Zealand Cricket cannot afford high profile, proven international coaching personnel. As we are a less-than-stellar cricket nation we are unlikely to attract them even before the pay packet is disclosed. However, that does not necessarily mean we cannot expect Moles to be an excellent coach. Former great players do not necessarily make great coaches. Coaches with a history of international success with one team may not immediately translate to success with another.

New Zealand Cricket could never be accused of missing the point. Only a matter of days after assembling a search and rescue team including Andy Moles, John Wright and Glenn Turner, the batsmen have once again been forced to activate their emergency locator beacons, this time from central Adelaide, writes Richard Boock in the Sunday Star Times.

John Bracewell failed. There's no point sugar-coating the pill: he was brought in to do a job and, at best, he only did half of it - the easy half, writes Dylan Cleaver in the Herald on Sunday.

But as he crams his kit into his New Zealand Cricket luggage for the final time this week, the more pertinent question is not whether he failed, but why, and how much of that failure is attributable to himself and the environment he either created, or had to work within? The New Zealand team he presided over for his last series looked more like an Emerging Players XI than a Test side. There are players learning how to bat while playing Test cricket. That this has been allowed to happen is in small part attributable to bad luck and in large part to bad management.

I'll leave the niceties to others, but for me John Bracewell is the man who has presided over New Zealand's swan dive towards the empty swimming pool which is the bottom of cricket's Test world rankings, writes Michael Donaldson in the Sunday Star Times.

In the same paper, Donaldson also says, "Certainly the current crop of batsmen are all relatively young in terms of test cricket; the problem is that it seems like it has been this way for the past five years with a succession of unsuccessful opening partnerships".

After winning the toss on another dull-witted Adelaide track, New Zealand sorely needed a batsman resolute enough to settle in for the day. Here was a priceless chance to construct a sizeable total. Application and skill were required, that is all. Unfortunately they were in short supply, writes Peter Roebuck in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Two John Bracewells leave New Zealand cricket next week. One, the ODI coach, should be regarded as a success. Under him, New Zealand maintained a strong reputation as capable of mixing it with the very best teams. The other Bracewell, the Test coach, must be rated a failure, writes Adam Parore in the New Zealand Herald.

Having played with Bracewell in the latter stages of his New Zealand career, I've found his transition to coach intriguing. Bracewell the player was all fire and brimstone, a hard nut, down to earth, who didn't pull any punches and didn't care what anyone else thought of him. Bracewell the coach was full of theories and while he still retained that spiky edge at times, he was positively mellow compared with the player of 20 years ago. I'd rather have seen more of the old Braces because I feel players relate better to a coach they feel is in sync with their thinking, who speaks their language, who thinks like they do.

No review of Bracewell's coaching era, which spanned five years from late 2003 to 2008, can fail to acknowledge his intensity to extract the best from the team and the seemingly endless amount of energy and enthusiasm he poured into that task. It was just that at times the way he went about it was like a misdirected missile exploding in numerous directions, writes Geoff Longley in the Press.

John Bracewell's reign of just under five years draws to a close after the second Test against Australia, with enough bizarre goings-on and anecdotes to fill a book. And that was just off the field. Mark Geenty in Stuff.co.nz takes a look at his tenure.

It was in coloured clothing where his players thrived as Bracewell relished the chance to manipulate tactics within a structured 50-over framework.

Fielding was his strength, and it only took one viewing of his legendary match eve fielding practices to appreciate that.

But while he was a master of spin in his playing days, his coaching public relations was decidedly average. And he didn't seem to lose sleep over it.

Paul Holden in his blog Sideline Slogger reveals 10 things you never knew about New Zealand's recently-appointed coach, Andy Moles - including his English diet and legendary hospitality.

New Zealand's Iain O'Brien is not a devastating wrecker with the ball, but he is an increasingly important player in the New Zealand Test team and one of its more interesting characters. “OB”, as he is known in Derbyshire cricket circles, is one of the more popular players on the local circuit and regularly makes contributions to the county's website. Paul Holden, in his blog Sideline Slogger, profiles him in stuff.co.nz.

As an interviewee, his answers are quirky. He was recently asked on Radio Sport where he thought the heads of the top six New Zealand batsmen were at: “The top six? They’re at lunch most probably. No, really, they are actually having lunch.”

Also read O'Brien's take on the Gabba crowd.

The crowds here are pretty good, ruined by a few, actually quite a few, idiots who think a day out at the cricket is just to abuse the guys playing any way how. You get called anything and everything. Embarrassing for these guys really, as a lot of the others around them are cringing. I don’t know how many times I’ve was called a ‘faggot’ this afternoon.

Simon Katich's successful comeback after two and a half years out of Test cricket should be noted by New Zealand's brains trust, writes Richard Boock in the Sunday Star Times.

The 33-year-old's success as a late bloomer follows that of Matthew Hayden, dropped in 1997, recalled in 2000, Damien Martyn, dropped in 1994, returned in 2000. And Justin Langer axed in 1993, recalled in 1998. Some of their brightest batting stars of the past five years were deemed to have failed at their first attempt.

Whatever happens at the Gabba today, New Zealand coach John Bracewell and his tour selectors Daniel Vettori and Brendon McCullum could do worse than think about that as they ponder their line-up for the second test in Adelaide. Peter Fulton, on the outer since the end of last summer's home series against England, must be brought back. To persist with the status quo would be madness.

Mark Richardson in the Herald on Sunday considers the inclusion of Tim Southee ahead of Kyle Mills as a positive move.

Jesse Ryder has already won a prominent fan this season. Kerry O'Keeffe writes in the Sunday Telegraph that the game needs "big guys" and he reflects on some of the other characters who made it despite being of a less-than-athletic frame, including Greg Ritchie and Arjuna Ranatunga.

I don't care if Jesse Ryder is seen as being five pick handles across the backside. Jesse is a flag bearer. He gives hope to pears. He has proven that should clipboard-wielding nerds be forced to measure your skin folds with barbeque tongs then that's okay! Runs and wickets should be the only measuring stick, not callipers.

O'Keeffe also defends Ryder for his off-field behaviour - after all, it could happen to anyone.

After Jesse put his hand through a glass window at 4am in February, he had to endure a spell on the sidelines. Anyone can put their hand through a glass window at that time. It's normally pretty dark.

What a shame New Zealand's batsmen could not carry on where their bowlers left off yesterday. Even so, by stumps last night the first test was wide open. But anyone assuming the pitch at the Gabba has been bad news for the test, think again, writes Adam Parore in the New Zealand Herald.

There's nothing wrong with the pitch. Indeed, you can mount a strong argument that these sort of pitches should be encouraged. They keep the game moving. When the sun comes out, the Gabba is invariably a treat to bat on, but on the first day, or if there's a bit of rain about, and the green tinges come through, the seam bowlers lick their lips. It has had consistent bounce and while it has certainly been challenging to bat on, it has not been dangerous or physically threatening.

For those with eyes on the future of New Zealand cricket, the first full round of the national championship this week offered an interesting glimpse of what might lie ahead, writes David Leggat also in the New Zealand Herald.

At the Under-19 World Cup, [Tim] Southee was the player of the tournament, taking 17 wickets at a remarkable 6.64 runs apiece. Not far behind him was Northern Districts left-armer Trent Boult, with 11 wickets at 10.9. Boult was one of five other members of that squad playing in the State Championship's first full round this week, and he made an immediate impact on his State Championship debut, grabbing five for 58 against Otago.

The Australian series should help resolve important points about this New Zealand team. There's no doubt hard questions will be asked of Dan Vettori's men. How New Zealand respond could provide an insight into what lies ahead later in the summer," writes David Leggat in the New Zealand Herald.

Does the middle order have a future?

On the face of it, the quartet of Jesse Ryder, Ross Taylor, Brendon McCullum and Daniel Flynn at Nos 3, 4, 5 and 6 has two things going for it - age and entertainment value ...

The case of Tim Southee.

Southee has plenty of developing to do. Considering the pile of cricket, in all three forms, that potentially lies ahead of the young man, it's important that New Zealand Cricket manage him smartly.

Tim Southee has won high praise from Richard Hadlee and in the Australian, Mike Coward is equally impressed with Southee following his efforts in Brisbane.

It is much too easy for red-blooded young pacemen to get carried away when they sight a grassy Gabba deck after days of heavy rain. But not Southee. He showed admirable poise and bowled with commonsense on a consistent line and an immaculate length. He moved the ball enough to disconcert and did not try to take a wicket with every delivery. And when he let loose his well-concealed quicker delivery the extra bounce brought Australia's top-order batsmen undone.

Not since Daniel Vettori has a teenager carried such weighty responsibility in New Zealand cricket. But while there are great hopes for Southee, unlike Vettori he has never been considered a prodigy. This will be to his advantage as he makes his way in the cricket world.

Peter Roebuck writes in the Sydney Morning Herald that everything went right for Daniel Vettori on the first day at the Gabba.

Vettori's masterstroke came on the stroke of tea. Hitherto Jesse Ryder has made his name mostly as a hard-hitting batsmen built along the lines favoured by John Daly, whose social habits lacked the discretion shown by the eventful golfer. Now he emerged as a burly medium-pacer capable of delivering the sort of temptations that started the rot in the Garden of Eden.

Dylan Cleaver writes in the Herald on Sunday that Ricky Ponting should get used to the term schadenfreude.

The cricket world is taking perverse pleasure in the apparent crumbling of a cricket empire - everybody loves seeing the playground bully's glass jaw exposed. The reason is simply this: where once there was grudging, yet tremendous admiration for the Australian juggernaut, now there is contempt.

Where Australia was bold and innovative under Mark Taylor and, to a lesser extent, Steve Waugh, they're now crass and stubborn. Take the level head of Michael Hussey out of this team and they're close to unlovable.

In the same paper, Mark Richardson argues that Daniel Vettori must be brave and send Australia in if he wins the toss at the Gabba.

Southee, Kyle Mills, and Chris Martin are swing bowlers and Ian O'Brien will get seam movement in the right conditions. Unless rain is forecast those conditions will only exist on day one. Then pray. It's a gamble bowling first in Australia. Nasser Hussain asked Australia to bat first on the greenish looking Gabba only for the locals to pound out 600 plus.

The ongoing absence of Shane Bond from the New Zealand team due to his ICL career is still a bugbear for some New Zealanders, as John Dybvig writes in the Sunday Star Times.

Bond is a stand-up guy who wanted to secure his financial future for his family by playing for the Delhi Giants. Wow, what a bastard he turned out to be - well, that's the view of New Zealand Cricket, who threw him under the bus. Oh sure, they came up with all sorts of justifiable excuses to hide behind their cowardice: it's the rules, they said, it's the ICC regulations.

Don't make me laugh, it's all about control, power, greed: the foundations of international cricket these days - the players are merely the meat in the money sandwich. And I just love this courageous stand from Black Caps captain Daniel Vettori: "While we would love to have him, the team's probably moved on from that. It has been a long time now."

Since when have the mighty Black Caps "moved on" from having quality players on their team?

Oram's continues to be dogged by injury worreis, the latest being the back injury picked up on tour to Bangladesh. David Leggat in the New Zealand Herald believes Oram may soon put the bowling boots away for good and play as a specialist batsman.

"Oram" and "injury" are no strangers to being in the same sentence, and the player is increasingly frustrated at being unable to stay healthy for a reasonable length of time. He calls his frequent injury layoffs "a bit of a joke", except no one's laughing.

Jacob Oram's forced return home from the tour of Bangladesh due to injury may well lead to him foregoing his role as an allrounder and play as a batsman alone, at least for the tour of Australia coming up, writes Dylan Cleaver in the New Zealand Herald.

The team to tour Australia will be picked this week and Oram's status and the return of Chris Martin are the only sticking points in what should otherwise be a straightforward exercise. With no cricket, aside from typically soggy spring club forays, being played, there is nowhere for the selectors to turn except for the players who, barring one or two notable exceptions, underperformed so badly in Bangladesh.

	Leading from the front: Daniel Vettori © AFP

If the pressure of captaincy is telling on the 29-year-old it is not showing, says Adrian Seconi after Daniel Vettori's top-class all-round display in Chittagong. Seconi writes in the Otago Daily Times:

There is nothing quite like leading from the front and his decision to come in as nightwatchman when Jesse Ryder was dismissed shortly before the end of day four was inspired.

....................

It seems inevitable he will join Imran Khan, Ian Botham, Kapil Dev, Shaun Pollock, Shane Warne and Hadlee as the only players who have taken at least 300 wickets and scored at least 3000 runs.

Read more on Vettori's unique feat in the Chittagong Test.

It'll be called many other things besides but New Zealand's hard-fought win in Chittagong will be remembered as Daniel Vettori's match, writes David Leggat in the New Zealand Herald.

He put himself in at No. 4 in the second innings shortly before stumps on the fourth day. Perhaps it was not so much to be the nightwatchman, more a case of wanting to show his batsmen how the job should be approached, and what he'd thought of their first innings effort. His was a conscientious, admirable five days' work. Forget that this was "only" Bangladesh. New Zealand came within a short distance of a hugely embarrassing first loss to them in seven matches.

Of the 900 legal deliveries bowled to them in the three ODIs against Bangladesh, the New Zealand batsmen managed to score off just 339. Dylan Cleaver in the Herald on Sunday expresses concern about the failure of the pair of Brendon McCullum and Jesse Ryder at the top and none of the batsman seemed to recreate the urgency of putting away the bad balls.

New Zealand's problem scoring against Bangladesh was most stark at the top of the order where the first 10 overs passed by in a befuddled haze of dot balls, wickets and the occasional boundary. In the first international at Mirpur, just 19 deliveries were scored off in the opening 10 overs; in the second that number decreased to 16; and at the better paced Chittagong wicket it sunk to an embarrassing 12.

In an another article, he believes the 'Black Caps' brand may be actually under threat, considering the new uniform worn by the players may actually be a deep shade of blue.

David Leggat in the New Zealand Herald believes this could the season when New Zealand discover their new middle-order rock.

In April what chance that New Zealand fans will be reflecting on the summer which moved Ross Taylor from a hugely promising talent to a genuine international star?

Certainly New Zealand's batting order could do with someone stepping up to the plate as the main man. Martin Crowe was that player for years; Stephen Fleming became the batsman on whom New Zealand hopes primarily rested for the last 10 years.

The situation is, excuse the pun, tailormade for someone to step in and fill the vacancy.

Dylan Cleaver has picked up a copy of Craig McMillan's explosive new book, Out of the Park, and shares his views on it in today's New Zealand Herald. This is McMillan's book, he says, and his chance to get a few things off his chest. Needless to say, the dreaded peer review system looms large. McMillan often failed to see eye to eye with John Bracewell, and McMillan feels the New Zealand coach was at his worst on the 2004 tour to England.

Craig McMillan's book Out of the Park was released last week and the New Zealand's Sunday News published an extract from the chapter on the bombings outside the team hotel in Karachi in 2002.

My build-up to the first day of the second test, on May 8, 2002, started no differently from any other. We were staying at the Pearl Intercontinental Hotel, one of two hotels in central Karachi which were frequented largely by westerners. We had two buses that would take us to the ground, an early bus and a later bus. The early bus was always for Mark Richardson, who liked to go to the ground and have 1000 throw-downs before anyone turned up at the match venue. The rest of us, who liked to have more sleep, waited around for the later bus. The early bus was originally scheduled to leave at 7.45am and the second bus was set to leave at 8.15am.

It was about 7.45am and I was lying in bed thinking I would have to get out of bed soon and that getting ready was going to be a bit of a rush. I was struggling to get up that morning for some reason.

Five minutes later I was blown out of bed. I had been lying in bed and all of a sudden I was on the floor, with glass all around me. My first thought was that someone had let off a grenade on one of the floors of the hotel. I was lucky that I had my curtains pulled across the window. The blast, which was outside my window, blew all the glass in, which was then stopped by the curtains. It gave me a shield. My door was blown off its hinges and there was a haze of smoke hanging around.

New Zealand went into their opening match of what will be a lengthy summer under-prepared, over-confident and got done by Bangladesh, writes Adam Parore in the New Zealand Herald.

I still believe New Zealand deserve to be ranked second or third based on what we've seen in the past few seasons, but even if they win the series 2-1, which they should do with this rough start out of the way, it won't do the trick on the rankings list ... they'd be embarrassed at turning in a half-arsed performance when they'd have wanted to hit the ground running. They'll know there will be teams around the world chuckling at their slip-up, and that will sting.

	Scott Styris and Chris Martin model New Zealand's newest kit © Getty Images

In his blog Sideline Slogger, Paul Holden marvels at the deal between New Zealand Cricket and Dheeraj and East Coast LLC (DEC), the new clothing sponsors of the national team. The company may have had a zero presence in New Zealand, but the new relationship is a sign of the times as Indian eyeballs all around the world are watching the team play and it is that viewership that gives rise to some less than obvious commercial possibilities. Read on in stuff.co.nz

Perhaps the deal was stitched up through the contacts of Brendon McCullum. How? HDIL, another company in the Wadhawan stable, is one of the six headline sponsors of the coolest team in the Indian Premier League, the Kolkata Knight Riders. Baz has put his 10 cents in on the coach so why not throw out some names and cellphone numbers for potential sponsors of the front of the shirt as well?

	Lou Vincent's experience with depression is now behind him © Getty Images

For me, it was a combination of events both on and off the field. I guess it's hereditary as well. It took time to realise something wasn't right and I finally realised it was time to quit cricket and move on. Every now and then we come across people in our lives who are suffering from some sort of stress. It's a horrible thing for anyone to go through. I'm on top of it at the moment ... It's important to write down some goals. The world we live in has so many things thrown at us and I think, if you've got goals, you can overcome that.

The last time New Zealand toured Australia was 2004. The build-up to the tour was a two-Test jaunt to Bangladesh where they whipped the home side in two horribly lop-sided tests. New Zealand were then thrashed in Australia," writes in the Herald on Sunday.

Fast forward four years and New Zealand are again preparing to play Tests at the Gabba - the toughest venue in Australia since the WACA lost its sting - and the Adelaide Oval on the back of a two-test series in Bangladesh. Not just any old series but, as a bonus, a watered-down one featuring a Bangladesh team decimated by the recent ICL raid. There's a term for this and it reads something like "being set up for a fall".

Luke Alfred of the Times catches up with Dave Nosworthy, the new coach of the Lions franchise in South Africa. Nosworthy talks about his experience in New Zealand, where he coached Canterbury for three seasons.

The cultural diversity — the Chinese, Japanese, Polynesians and Maoris — and the ease of doing business in a First World country. There’s no red tape there — things happen. That stood out. And then there’s the natural beauty of the country — it’s magnificent. But the African blood remains. I really wanted to come back. With all these people emigrating to New Zealand it amazes me how they become All Black supporters overnight — I got into a couple of animated conversations over that topic!

	Figures alone do not convey an adequate picture of the capabilities of this well-built, good-looking, golden-haired batsman © Photosport

Brent Edwards, the former sports editor of the Otago Daily Times, is a little miffed that Wellington-based author Joseph Romanos has omitted Bert Sutcliffe from his top test team in his just-released book, Cricket Portraits, A Century of New Zealand's Best. In fact, he thinks it counts as heresy.

Romanos profiles 100 of New Zealand's best cricketers and, while he is effusive in his praise of Sutcliffe, he does not select him in his top test side. He chooses Glenn Turner and Stewie Dempster as his opening batsmen and Andrew Jones as his No 3. The other specialist batsmen are Martin Crowe, Martin Donnelly and John Reid.

The averages of Dempster, Turner and Jones are better than Sutcliffe's, marginally in the case of Turner and Jones, but it should be remembered Sutcliffe propped up a weak New Zealand batting order for much of his career. And what can't be measured in statistics is the charm and grace with which Sutcliffe thrilled crowds throughout the cricket world.

I would have opened with Turner and Dempster, batted Crowe at No 3 and Sutcliffe at No 4.

Peter Fulton and James Marshall may feel a little hard done by with the announcement of the New Zealand squad for the tour of Bangladesh. Dylan Cleaver in New Zealand's Herald on Sunday believes Daniel Flynn and Jesse Ryder may get the chance to cement their positions in the middle order.

A middle order containing Fulton and Marshall is not going to frighten anybody, whereas one that contains Ryder, Ross Taylor, Flynn, Brendon McCullum and Jacob Oram might ... one day ... maybe?

Chris Cairns is still walking in his effort to raise rail safety awareness, registering more than 30km a day. Britton Broun, writing in the Dominion Post, catches up with Cairns, whose sister Louise died in a train accident in 1993.

Since then, safety has become a "personal crusade" for Cairns, who established a foundation to teach school pupils of the dangers at New Zealand's often-unmarked rail crossings. The charity walk began in Auckland three weeks ago and Cairns has been walking every day, clocking up 635km so far. He faces a further 366km walk to the site of his sister's death.

Over 34 days Chris Cairns will cover 1001km in memory of his sister Louise, who died in a train crash in 1993. The New Zealand Herald reports Cairns, who now plays in the Indian Cricket League, is doing the trip to promote rail safety awareness in the country.

You can follow Cairns’ walk here.

A day after Pakistan's newspapers said players considering boycotting the Champions trophy were applying double standards, Richard Boock, writing in the Sunday Star Times, has the same message for New Zealand's cricketers.

It was apparently fine that New Zealand arrived in England for this year's winter tour at a time when terrorist attacks were deemed by the Home Office to be "highly likely"; just as it was when Australia continued to play in London as the bombs were going off in 2005.

The same paper has an extract from Boock's biography of Daniel Vettori. Check out the New Zealand captain's views on the increasing politics of cricket, and his take on whether New Zealand should have toured Zimbabwe in 2005.

Cricket has brought Zimbabwe to the New Zealand public's attention - it created a window through which we could watch and debate the topic, and make it relevant for us. It gave us a chance to take cameras and reporters, and with that the eyes of the world, into a place that's pretty well cut off in terms of scrutiny.

Is this such a bad thing? Certainly not. Is contact worth abandoning on the very subjective grounds that to do otherwise is to support Mugabe? Again, I doubt it somehow.

In the Herald on Sunday, Dylan Cleaver says the Champions Trophy is unlikely to be anything other than a "complete wash-out".

In the Sunday Times, Rod Liddle ponders how money changes the attitudes of professional sportsmen.

We are indulgent towards our professional sportsmen, expecting them to be wholly selfish and amoral. Urged to consider the morality of taking part in sporting events in Soviet Russia, or Zimbabwe, or China, they whine that these are political matters and that, possessing no capacity for reason, they should be excused the responsibility to consider them. Show them a huge sack of moolah, however, and they have, over the years, demonstrated a remarkable sense of purpose and conviction, which allowed them to play - for example - in apartheid South Africa.

New Zealand's decision to tour Zimbabwe in 2005 was a farce and any decision to tour in 2009 will be tragedy indeed, writes Paul Lewis in the Herald on Sunday. He lambasts the ineffective decision-making last time around and call on the government to ban the tour instead of sending letters to New Zealand Cricket outlining reasons why the cricketers should not go to Zimbabwe.

Dermot Reeve has been appointed the Central Districts coach and talks to Dominion Post's Sam Worthington about the challenges ahead, as he relocates to New Zealand without his family.

Reeve brings to Central a reputation for improvisation that is likely to endear him to the likes of the flamboyant Ross Taylor, though he claimed that was a tag thrust upon him by others. "Innovative is something that someone else puts on you and I just weighed up the pros and the cons of where to put men in the field and what degree of risk you might take with a certain shot. I was lucky to have played and captained at a time at Warwickshire where myself and Bob Woolmer, we did analyse the game and give it the attention I believe it deserves. To me, playing the reverse sweep when the field is set a certain way is just the right thing to do. Other people would describe the shot as innovative, but if you practice it, it's just like playing any other shot."

"As it stands, if NZC were to withdraw from next year's tour of Zimbabwe for reasons other than security or safety issues, they would be liable for an automatic fine of US$2m, plus all liabilities suffered by the host board (television rights included) as a result. Their ICC membership status could also be questioned," writes Richard Boock in Sunday Star Times. "However, there is an escape clause in the agreement that waives all penalties should a team be barred from touring by government decree."

The Australian government used it last year to help their national cricket team avoid a tour of Zimbabwe and the British government followed suit last month; issuing a ministerial communiqué that allowed the ECB to back out of their commitments. Far from proving controversial, both decisions received widespread support at home and abroad.Despite this, the New Zealand government continues to baulk at taking such action, arguing that interfering with ci tizens' freedom of movement was an extreme and draconian measure, and that it wasn't prepared to withhold passports in order to reinforce its feelings on Zimbabwe.

Scott Styris fired a salvo of harsh text messages at Mark Richardson, a former New Zealand opener turned journalist, because of what the allrounder thought to be a negative article written by Richardson. Read Richardson's response in the Herald on Sunday.

I've no doubt this attack came about due to the delicate balance an ex-team member faces when they step out of the dressing room and straight into the media. I believe the player involved would not have been motivated to approach the likes of a professional journalist in the same way they did me when they were angered by what was written. Within the group you see things similarly and, even when disagreements arise, the dynamics on the inside are vastly different than dealing with disagreements that arise between the team and outside media. When you leave that pack, I believe it is easier for the person leaving the group to sever ties than for those who remain to cut that person loose.

	Paul Collingwood took the easy option © Getty Images

England pride themselves on being a tough side, but there is a huge difference between making themselves hard to beat and messing with the spirit of the game. Collingwood sought victory at any price, little realising that its value would be diminished.

According to Mike Atherton, writing in the same paper, England lost the match, but, more important, a good deal of self-respect in that moment.

Imagine, though, if England had won. It is difficult to imagine how Collingwood could have apologised with a straight face; difficult, too, to envisage how the New Zealanders might have felt able to accept it. When Graeme Swann’s errant throw missed the stumps and evaded four England fielders, the cricketing gods rendered a judgment of their own.

Simon Hughes writes in the Telegraph that when a man as decent as Paul Collingwood gets drawn into temporarily seeking a win at all costs, it is just further confirmation that cricket has sacrificed any right to the moral high ground.

Meanwhile Mark Richardson, the former New Zealand opener, said the collision was "harmless". He said to stuff.co.nz:

Richardson said New Zealand should be careful about "throwing stones" and being hypocritical. He said the incident was similar to when Sri Lanka's Muralitharan was run out during last year's tour to New Zealand. Muralitharan had walked down the pitch to celebrate his partner Sangakkara's century, while the ball was being returned to the wicketkeeper, and he was dismissed. "We were happy to take that decision," he said.

Paul Holden, the Sideline Slogger, feels there are differences in the two incidents.

I agree that it was a very aggressive move for New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming not to recall Murali, and was arguably a contravention of the spirit of cricket. However, let’s also remember that it was also pretty dumb. In this morning’s case, unlike Murali, Elliott was not at fault. He was not being stupid or naive, he was injured and had been flattened, and unlike the Sri Lankan he could not and unlike the Sri Lankan he could not be accused of failing to value his wicket sufficiently.

The New Zealand Herald has a collection of English press reactions from the incident.

In the New Zealand Herald Dylan Cleaver lets rip against the recent New Zealand debacles.

New Zealand are now in the process of writing a grim tale: How to turn a sport from boom to bust in five easy steps.

1. Make the players look like money-hungry frauds

Whichever way you slice it up, the Indian Premier League ended up being an almost unprecedented PR disaster for New Zealand Cricket.

2. Have a coach who doesn't know when to talk or when to shut up

	Has John Bracewell reached the end of his tether? © Getty Images

Listening to John Bracewell's pronouncements this week made it clear New Zealand Cricket should get their skates on and hasten the appointment of his replacement as national coach, writes Adam Parore in the New Zealand herald.

Matt Richens, writing in the Waikato Times, thinks the blame for New Zealand's loss should all be directed at Mr Inept himself, John Bracewell.

With Bracewell at the helm, we will be lucky to keep our current seventh spot, but fret not, we will win some one-day games because that's where all Bracewell's eggs have been firmly placed.

In the Sunday Star Times John Matheson interviews Martin Crowe on the coach's role in the modern game.

Coaching at the top level is about man management. My forte as a captain wasn't man management it was tactical and leading from the front. My combination with Warren Lees worked because he was a man-manager. You need someone who can manage men and John Wright is outstanding at that. Clearly the lesson from the last five years is that the man-management of the side has been disastrous.

The one-day series between England and New Zealand begins on Sunday and Paul Holden has come up with each team's best-performed XI based purely on averages over the past two years. He writes in his blog the Sideline Slogger.

Meanwhile Hamish McDouall goes to the Tests and comes up with his three favourite New innings by New Zealand batsmen down the years:

Mark Burgess batting at Dacca in 1970. Ugly conditions, rabid crowd, but Burgess worked with the tail to secure the draw, and our only series win in Pakistan.

Nathan Astle scoring a century and then a fifty in 2003 against India. He arrived at the crease with the Black Caps 17 for 3 in the first innings, and hit a century to avoid the follow-on.

And the greatest defensive innings of all time. Mark Greatbatch, eleven hours, four Australian legends with the ball, the WACA.

Dylan Cleaver gives a diary account of what he describes as a sad sad day for New Zealand cricket, after surrendering another series to England. Read on in the New Zealand Herald.

All the optimism of Hamilton in March has been stripped away and was it any wonder that when he shuffled off Trent Bridge just now he looked a broken man.

New Zealand lost the second Test against England after having the upper hand and Mark Richardson believes Daniel Vettori should be mulling over the lost opportunity more than most because he blew the opportunity to do something he has not done for 11 years/78 Test matches - take five wickets or more in a test innings in a game that New Zealand has gone on to win (excluding Bangladesh). He writes in the New Zealand Herald:

It's wrong to respond to this revelation by simply saying Vettori is not accomplishing his core responsibility of bowling his country to victory because there is so much more to Vettori's contribution to New Zealand cricket than simply taking wickets on the last day of a Test match, important though that is. There is no question of Vettori's quality, versatility and consistency as a Test bowler.

What should hurt the most for Vettori right now is that, regardless of the third innings batting calamity, 296 was plenty of runs to play with on that Old Trafford pitch and it was all set up for him to win the match with his primary skill.

"A glance at the scoreboard from this week's second Test loss to England would suggest New Zealand's wretched batting performance in the third innings alone decided the outcome," says Adam Parore in the New Zealand Herald. "But it is not that simple ..."

We have become used to these collapses, which tend to be put down to bad sessions. One each at the Basin Reserve and Napier cost New Zealand dearly in their two Test defeats to England earlier in the year. But I believe they have come about as a result of New Zealand actually having to play extremely well to stay with England. At some point they have slipped up, and the results have been disastrous. Even as they have been competing well, there have been signs that all is not hunky dory.

	McCullum's now batting at five which makes him more a batsman-wicketkeeper and very soon will be unquestionably the best - so long as Kumar Sangakkara keeps the gloves off © Getty Images

"He made the number eight spot in one-day internationals his own, very quickly becoming the best ODI closer in the world. Over time, and after a few failures, he finally made the opener's role his own in the Black Caps' ODI team and, as Adam Gilchrist fades with age, he'll soon be the best at that game too," writes Mark Richardson in the Herald on Sunday.

I was not overly keen to see McCullum elevated in ODIs because I believe in the importance of bite in the tail and not just strike power at the top. However, what he has shown of late at the top of the order you simply cannot downplay. I've not the same reservations when it comes to his elevation to five in test matches. The difference between batting five or seven in test match cricket is nowhere near as drastic as the difference between opening in ODIs or batting in the lower middle order.

Also check out Dylan Cleaver's piece on Lord's in the Herald on Sunday.

The cameras love to pan to the Pavilion where bacon-and-egg blazered members make the most of their good fortune, sometimes choosing an afternoon nap over the opportunity to see Jacob Oram poke around for 146 minutes and countless thick edges. But that is their prerogative. It takes approximately 18 years between application and acceptance to become a member of the Marylebone Cricket Club - is it any wonder, then, that they look so smug when they finally earn the right to wear the blazer and tie?

Brendon McCullum's elevation to No.5 in the order was an immediate success as he hit 97 on the opening day at Lord's to haul New Zealand out of trouble. Mark Richardson, his former team-mate, says in the Herald on Sunday that it was the right move, but it shouldn't mean that he needs to give up the gloves any time soon.

His 97 in the first innings of this current test was a fine example of Brendon McCullum in total equilibrium and an innings from which he should grow more comfortable, confident and clear in his test game. Where I do have reservations is in the possible discharging of the wicketkeeping duties simply because he is batting in the top six. Having your keeper in the top six provides for options in balance.

Meanwhile, Dylan Cleaver gives a New Zealand viewpoint on the Lord's experience and notices that the exchange rate isn't very friendly.

Its famed Nursery is transformed into a veritable theme park of food stalls, liquor outlets and merchandising caravans. It is here the Lord's proletariat gather, dressed in their newly purchased MCC polo shirts - a snip at just $63, down from $140 - munching $17 burgers and quaffing Foster's ($9 per pint), Pimms ($11 per glass), or, if you're in the mood, a little Veuve Clicquot.

	Lord's a citadel of cricket? © Getty Images

Lord’s is truly a citadel of cricket. Every single one of you must come here before you die. Cricket oozes from these pores in St John’s Wood – there is nowhere better to be watching cricket. But while it is a magnet for cricket-lovers from around the world, the weird and wonderful eccentrics of London also gravitate toward it. For example, as I waited at the MCC reception, I heard grunting and groaning and a chap emerged with a weird looking racquet, in top to toe white towelling. He’d been unleashing on another bloke similarly attired, as they played what must be one of the most ridiculous sports ever invented: real tennis. Just what the point of a court promoting another sport is doing at the home of cricket is not clear to me, but there you go. And sitting in front of us in The Mound Stand was a match made in heaven: a husband and wife listening to the BBC’s Test Match Special via one cheeky earphone each. A beautiful thing.

Hamish McDouall is less enamoured by the ground. He writes in Googlies & Grass Stains.

Lord’s has long been called Headquarters, but I reject that. I don’t want to let this lozenge-shaped part of St John’s Wood dominate world cricket. I prefer the spongy banks of the Basin Reserve, or the urban grubbiness of the Oval, or the hedonistic chaos of Queen’s Park Oval in Port of Spain. I also prefer cricket at Liardet Park, or Glover Park, or Sunnyvale. Or on a beach where the lick of the waves at square leg means six and out. Cricket does not need busts of W.G. Grace, rolled up copies of The Times and the whiff of Pimms to buoy it. It is a better game than that. It is a game that has made as many coalminers as accountants famous, a game that embraces Indian princes, and Taranaki farmers. It is also a game that doesn’t need, or even desire, umbrellas. Of any hue.

In the Dominion Post, Jeremy Coney runs his eye over the current New Zealand team - he calls them the Bleak Caps - and finds plenty of reasons for concern.

In an ideal world, Jamie How and Ross Taylor would be two of our young stars poised for development. An England tour is an ideal place for them to progress. However, compared to their top- order teammates, they are senior statesmen. And Taylor himself was dropped as recently as the Bangladesh series. Is this the way to develop long-term players?

Despite circumstances, the squad looks unbalanced. Five seam bowlers (an aging population of 29-33) and Jacob Oram. It does appear heavily weighted – six into four (test requirements) when the batting looks so inexperienced and unknown is a luxury. The top five batsmen register 19 tests between them. Similar batting positions for the Bangladesh side that played New Zealand recently held 115 tests and their current opposition 221. All England whiff crumbly collapso.

New Zealand aren't blessed with an array of world-class cricketers and begin the series against England as distinct second favourites. However, in Ross Taylor they have a batsman capable of forging an successful career and the top level. He already has a Test century against England, 120 in Hamilton, and produced some powerful hitting in the Indian Premier League.

In The Sunday Telegraph, Scyld Berry profiles Taylor and why he goes against the mould of many New Zealanders.

Blessed with a role model in Taylor, New Zealand can now spread cricket far more quickly among the one-third of their population which is not of European ancestry. To date, out of the handful of non-white Test cricketers they have had, only the wicketkeeper on their last tour of England, Adam Parore, can be said to have had a fair go.

Sir Richard Hadlee, New Zealand's greatest player, tells the Observer's's Will Buckley that Test cricket should never be compromised by the shorter versions. He also talks about New Zealand's forthcoming series against England.

'The players we have are more suited to one-day cricket. We have made five World Cup semi-finals and the Twenty20 semi-finals. Tactically we are pretty good in the one-day game. We believe we can go and win. But in Test cricket we are inconsistent. You have to bat time, not overs, in Test cricket, whereas in the one-day game you bat overs, not time. We might score well in the first innings, but then be bowled out for a paltry score in the second innings. We may surprise, but England are hot favourites.

Mark Richardson, writing in the Herald on Sunday, is also not very optimistic about New Zealand’s prospects against England and thinks their best chance of winning a Test is at Lord’s.

John Bracewell has repeatedly called the current tour the second part of a six-match series and right now I can't see anything other than 5-1.
…

One thing the team can draw strength from is that England doesn't have a particularly dominant record at the venue for the first test, Lord's. That can be put down to the motivating effect the occasion has on touring teams.

Stephen Brenkley in the Independent assesses New Zealand’s chances in England, with a side bolstered by the return of their five players who were competing in the IPL.

Now they are fully assembled, it is still not a prospect to float many boats. No doubt this is grossly unfair - and it may also play straight into the tourists' hands - but to think of New Zealand cricket is to think of an afternoon in dullsville.

	Brendon McCullum played fly-half for his schoolboy representative side © Getty Images

We knew Brendon McCullum was talented. And now we discover he once kept Dan Carter out of a schoolboy rugby representative side. For the South Island secondary schools team McCullum played fly-half (or first five-eighth as New Zealanders prefer) and Carter came off the bench to appear on the wing.

In case you aren't aware, Carter, the All Black fly-half, is God's representative on a rugby field. He is that good, and McCullum was once deemed better. Wow.

James contends that McCullum is now in the big league…

He is the story right now. One felt sorry for Daniel Vettori at New Zealand's press conference in deepest Essex last week. After the bog-standard top table stuff where Vettori spoke with customary common-sense, the New Zealand captain was then left waiting alone in a corner, fiddling with his mobile phone while journalists surrounded McCullum, hanging on his every word. McCullum had better get used to it. There will never be another Adam Gilchrist but McCullum is now a pretty exciting alternative

The series against New Zealand will be Peter Moores' second home season as coach of England. He talks to Mike Selvey on the year gone by and the IPL. Read on in the Guardian.

You can imagine Peter Moores on The Apprentice. In fact you can imagine him winning The Apprentice. He is personable (not that that appears a necessary quality), diligent, wonderfully well-organised, enthusiastic, intelligent, innovative, ruthless where necessary, speaks management lingo as a first language and is such a dyed-in-the-wool optimist that he could find a positive at the bottom end of a Duracell.

Former New Zealand batsman Mark Richardson does not want New Zealand to head to Pakistan for their three-ODI series. In the New Zealand Herald he writes:

If Pakistan is to host the ICC Champions Trophy, then a three-match, one-day international series between New Zealand and Pakistan in Pakistan just prior to the tournament makes perfect sense - except for the fact that Pakistan should not be hosting the Champions Trophy and New Zealand should not tour there right now.

As New Zealand search desperately for international-standard players, the omission of Chris Martin from the one-day squad to tour England is odd, writes Dylan Cleaver in the Herald on Sunday.

No, he can't bat, and you wouldn't stake your life on him under a steepler, but he's a better fielder than Gillespie and not far behind Mason. Neither of those two are threatening allrounder status with the bat either, though Gillespie will always be remembered after fluking some runs in that epic Chappell-Hadlee run chase last year.

Martin's dumping is a nonsense; it's just a shame it is only his team-mates and not the selectors who recognise that.

Mark Richardson, writing in the Herald on Sunday, says the dumping of Matthew Bell and Mathew Sinclair from the England tour shows runs at domestic level are not enough to earn Test selection.

In fairness, Sinclair was given every opportunity to regain his early international form but showed he is not the player he was in 1999. So the selectors were able to ignore his good return for Central Districts again and his quite outstanding domestic record.

Bell, on the other hand, would have stimulated more debate. In 1998, Bell was selected on potentia