Should Daniel Flynn be batting at No. 5 in ODIs? © Getty Images

Limited-overs cricket can help a Test opener, according to Mark Richardson, who feels Tim McIntosh and Jamie How need to get some runs in the one-day format to keep their place in the Test side. He writes in the New Zealand Herald:

Both How and McIntosh will be aware that their scoring areas will differ between test and ODI play and the fear is that should McIntosh play State Shield it will affect his test technique. It will not, it will only help him. McIntosh needs to hold a place in the Aces State Shield team, something he has failed to do and his test status simply should not provide for special treatment. However, with Auckland struggling he may get a run and that will only help him.

In the same paper, Dylan Cleaver is not sure if How at No. 3 and Daniel Flynn at No. 5 do justice to the New Zealand one-day bating line-up? Apart from the fact they stand on different sides of the bat, their styles are too similar.

It is nice to have one guy in the top order who you can have your dashers working around, but two? When those guys see a lot of strike, as How did during the middle overs, it puts a lot of pressure on the Ryders and Taylors to clear the ropes. When Flynn replaced How at the crease it delayed the entry of big-hitting Jacob Oram from the 15th over to the 17th. Given that Oram likes a few sighters before he blasts off, leaving him at No 6 did not make sense.

	Carry on smiling, and the world will smile with you © Getty Images

So why should we like Iain O'Brien so much? Chris Rattue in the New Zealand Herald lists out several reasons why we should treasure such a charming character with a decent handle on life.

It's that infectious grin at the corner of his mouth and an open nature that draw you in. They are such a breath of fresh air in a world of sport where the mumbling of the precocious and the precious dominate.

In the same paper, David Leggat writes that O'Brien happens to be among the first names Daniel Vettori puts on his Test line-up these days because of the air of confidence he brings to the dressing room.

	The review system is being trialled for the first time in New Zealand © Getty Images

Who would possibly want to be a cricket umpire these days? If you're covered by the game's new provisions you invite humiliation from a multi-million dollar video replay machine; if you operate under the old rules you leave yourself open to widespread public ridicule, writes Richard Boock in the Sunday Star Times.

It doesn't take much head- scratching to realise that, if cricket chiefs really want to reintroduce an element of credibility to officiating, it would make much more sense to simply allow the bowlers' end umpires to call for video assistance whenever they felt the need. In an environment in which the benefit of the doubt has now been replaced by a forensic audit, the umpires at least deserve the opportunity to refer the close-calls upstairs themselves. Forcing them to guess first is simply perverse.

The review system is also part of Sideline Slogger Paul Holden's 10 frustrations from Dunedin.

It is there to stop cheating and incompetence, not transform the umpires into a jury of three. My view is that it shouldn’t be used in relation to LBW decisions where there is no bat involved, as there is no certainty around where the ball will end up. The umpire in the middle should be left to make these calls with no further correspondence entered into. The gogglebox should only be called upon around dodgy catches, feathery nicks to the keeper and bat-pad howlers.

Cricket has been rich in human drama and controversy. It is integral to the appeal of the sport. But the invasion of technology has the potential to strip the sport of its colour and reduce the umpire's role to that of a ventriloquist's dummy, writes Adrian Seconi in the Otago Daily Times.

Remember folks, it's only a trial. Knickers can be untwisted, at least for the moment, writes David Leggat in the New Zealand Herald.

The umpiring referral system is having its second tryout during New Zealand's series against the West Indies. The evidence so far? Yes, it has promise, certainly it adds a measure of theatre and undoubtedly it helps get decisions right. But without question, rough edges need smoothing off.

Also in the New Zealand Herald, read Chris Rattue's take on the ground staff using kitty litter to dry the University Oval in Dunedin.

Batsmen have usually enjoyed the rub of the green in doubtful appeals but the new umpire referrals system will only make batting a lot harder, writes Adam Parore in the New Zealand Herald. They will have to get bat on ball around the off stump and that is going to create a lot more opportunities for other types of dismissals.

In a decision such as Flynn's, I believe the ball needs to hit the pads in line with the inside half of the off stump to allow for the batter to get the benefit of the doubt - but that's not what happened to him. Flynn was struck on the outside half of the off stump - only just in line with the stumps by even the most precise measure. Perhaps the answer may be to only use the referral system to determine if the ball has touched the bat, but leave any other part of lbw decisions to the men in the middle.

In the same paper, Adrian Seconi meets Kern Tyson, a blind West Indian commentator who never let his disability get in the way of his passion.

He began working at FFBN in 2002 and it was there he was able to put his passion into practice. "Every time I went on air I spoke about sport. So eventually I said, 'This is my passion and I need to get into writing about sport and become a sports analyst."

	Who's the boss? © AFP

It could be the ideal time for Daniel Vettori to step forward and take a stronger hand on what goes on within the dressing room, as well as running the show on the park, writes David Leggat in the New Zealand Herald. With Andy Moles' hands-on approach to coaching, it will be interesting to see how their working relationship pans out.

If Vettori casts his mind back to the latter part of the Trist reign and through the Aberhart years early in this decade, he'll recall Stephen Fleming demanding a greater say in operations. By that stage he felt confident in his abilities, both as the team's leading batsman but also as a captain growing into the job and backing his judgments.

His influence on this New Zealand team is growing. His job is doubly difficult in that bowlers rarely make top captains.

Daniel Flynn's first crack at No. 3 saw him score 95 against West Indies in Dunedin and his knock should come as a relief for New Zealand's struggling top order. One-drop has been a problematic position for New Zealand in the past and in the same paper Leggat looks at examples of players in the past who've graced it, in particular Andrew Jones.

After making his debut in Sri Lanka in 1987, Jones became a highly productive batsman with his own idiosyncratic style. The Australians took potshots at him on his first trip there in late-1987 but Jones did his talking with his bat.

Read Iain O'Brien's take on the first day's play in Dunedin in his cricket blog.

It’s 28 years since Dunedin hosted a test match against the West Indies. Lance Cairns belting the ball into Burns Street, Michael Holding kicking the stumps out. The two tail-enders scampering down the wicket to secure a historic leg-bye. Hamish McDouall in his blog Googlies & Grass Stains believes it was also one of the first times New Zealand cricket showed naked cunning.

New Zealand didn’t want to face all four quicks, so they selected two spinners in their twelve, and then called in a third...the Windies dropped Andy Roberts and selected spinner Derek Parry, whom Lance Cairns sent over the boundary three times with luscious plundering.

Those kinds of mind games can work - the same as leaving documents detailing the Black Caps’ weaknesses at the Cake Tin, the great finesse of John Buchanan in 2000. Make the other team concentrate on weaknesses and you have won the battle, no?

After five years and 34 Tests in the West Indies team, Fidel Edwards is within five wickets of joining his brother, Pedro Collins, as the only such blood relations in the history of Test cricket to both pass 100 wickets. Tony Cozier in the Nation News looks at more such famous pairs.

Also, Paul Holden in his blog Sideline Slogger has a peripheral take on a potential starting XI for West Indies.

Adam Parore, the former international wicketkeeper, is picking New Zealand to win the Test series against West Indies 1-0, despite their batting horrors in Brisbane and Adelaide. The two-match contest is shaping as a pretty even battle between the number seven and eight sides in world cricket, which is a bit of a sad proposition, but Parore feels the big interest will be what impact the new New Zealand coach Andy Moles has. Read his column in the New Zealand Herald.

In the same newspaper, Chris Rattue catches up with Steve Folkes, the former Canterbury Bulldogs coach who swapped the hard yards of rugby league for the wonders and mysteries of the West Indian cricket team. Just a few weeks into the gig, Folkes is still feeling his way into a job that might evolve or else turn into an interlude before he coaches league again, his main aim.

As West Indies begin their latest tour of New Zealand today, Tony Robson's memory drifts back to heady days when the Caribbean's cricketers ruled the planet.Since their acrimonious tour of New Zealand in 1979-80, West Indies have held a fascination for those of his generation, writes Robson in the Dominion Post.

In the Otago Daily Times, former New Zealand batsman John Parker tells Alistair McMurran of his involvement in the infamous Michael-Holding-kicking-down-the-stumps incident at Carisbrook in 1980.

"I saw out of the corner of my other eye that Michael Holding was making tracks in my direction and was 10 inches away from me when he booted all the stumps out of the ground."

Holding, whose nickname was "Whispering Death", never said a word to Parker.

"But there were two other tests left and I knew I was going to get a very warm West Indian welcome in the next test at Christchurch."