by Shreyas S. Bhide
That the New Zealand cricket is in utmost disarray is a known fact, but little of this can be attributed to the regular reasons why teams slip into a zilch position in world cricket. It’s not a case of bad administration, or lack of talent or even lack of strong team.
Everything’s in place for the NZ cricket team except that they are not raring to go and hit the nail right in the head. This factor, combined with the lack of financial and political clout in the ICC has paraylysed NZ cricket altogether. The NZ administartion needs to take important and immediate steps to effect a turn around.
After a year of change in 2007, when they lost Nathan Astle, Craig McMillan and Hamish Marshall to the ICL, there were a couple of even more important departures in 2008. Within the first few weeks of the year, Shane Bond had headed for the ICL and his New Zealand career was over. Stephen Fleming also retired after the home series against England, and that obviously created a huge void that till now has become impossible to fill up.
For NZ, the only consolation is that unlike their other struggling counter parts(West Indies and Pakistan), they managed to atleast hold on to their own as a reputed international team, and the results not showing so. Unlike many experts who say that the NZ Cricket administration should take steps to stop the players to ICL and IPL, theis they should let the players participate in IPL which is a big money spinner tournament. They can ask the players to contribute 20% of what they earn to their home cricket office and that will solve the financial With players Vettori, Ross Taylor, Brendon McCullum and Jacob Oram being hotshots in the IPL, amounts of monies shouldnt be a problem. The NZ cricket has to ponder upon the fact that they haven’t visited India or Pakistan to play the longer version of the game for a long time (seven years to be precise). The subcontinent is a huge revenue ground thanks to the immense popularity of the sport there. It’s alright to argue that touring Pakistan isn’t safe these days and as a matter of fact its true. Neither is the Pakistan Cricket administartion in a state to host tours. This is where the March series against India will come handy.
The selectors should check and change the New Zealand team purely on terms on merit. The selectors need to have a deep look in the domestic circuit and hand pick and nourish extra ordinary talents. Jesse Ryder, Daniel Flynn, Tim Southee and Tim McIntosh all debuted and showed promise, but the going since then has been tough. The only batsmen from the new lot to make a mark and continue with it consistently is Brendon McCullum, who stands as a worthy deputy to Vettori.
The selectors and the team management also need to get the opening roles right. The incessant chopping and changing with the opening roles continues to harm the team. Craig Cumming and Matthew Bell began as the first-choice pair, Bell and Jamie How were tried, then How and Aaron Redmond, and finally How and McIntosh. And now How is struggling, so who knows how long the current combination will last. It has created instability for the middle order - hardly ideal with young batsmen trying to find their feet at Nos. 3, 4 and 5.
The year 2009 wll be favoured by the Black Caps as they play more limited over games than tests. Its the test arena where they have been struggling more to come to terms with victories. The ODI’s throughout the year 2008 were a mixed bag and hence, it will be another year in development for an evolving, yet struggling side.
