A tour to India and the World T20 – a Kiwi view

Pallekele International Stadium (courtesy of Getty Images)

For a New Zealand cricket fan, recent history has not been kind. The national team’s dismantling in the West Indies rubbed salt into an already festering wound, and reminded many of the efforts of their efforts prior to Stephen Fleming’s reign at the helm.

A one win – eight loss record across all three formats in Florida and the Caribbean should never be acceptable – most leading cricketing nations would be looking to run a scythe through their line-up but those in the second tier, such as New Zealand, do not have that luxury. That we are in the middle of the off-season means there are even fewer options to call on to step up at international level.

West Indies tour review 2012 (3)

Part 3: Issues, opportunities and an Olympic pause


Issues and opportunity encapsulate all that is New Zealand cricket and its cricketers - the problem is that the opportunities seem to morph into issues. Throughout the tour old mistakes were repeated ad nauseum whilst new ones were created. That the most engrossing part of a long tour was an Olympic final says it all…