On Cricinfo's Assessment of New Zealand's Problems

A recent stats piece on Cricinfo, detailing New Zealand's woes in the two larger formats of the game, makes for predictably depressing reading if you're a kiwi supporter. While this is the sort of data that ought to be a wakeup call for the NZ management, I wish Cricinfo would go beyond stating the obvious and shed a bit more light on NZ's situation. A couple of things stand out from the piece:

-- Sure, NZ have a worse test record than anyone barring the West Indies from April 2006 onwards. But they have also played just 37 tests in this period - lower than anyone in the top eight. The Windies have the next-lowest figure of 48 matches, and England have played 74 in this period. We all know NZ doesn't play enough test cricket, but still, the number comes as a shock. There appears to be no obvious solution; as David noted in a post last year, NZ are truly in a Catch-22 - the other teams don't wan't to play them because they don't bring in the revenue and are not considered worthy opponents, but then NZ can't expect to improve unless they play more test cricket.

-- Somewhat similarly, since Feb 2010 (the 'start' of NZ's decline in one-day cricket) NZ appear to be playing less one-day cricket than the rest - 37 games against the top sides compared to 52 for England, who aren't keen on this format. NZ have lost 29 of these games, and the key stat here is that 19 of these losses have come in subcontinent-type conditions (the West Indies included). Worryingly, this comes across as a symptom of a cricketing culture in which lessons are not being learnt. In the Fleming era, for example, NZ's batsmen were never great players of spin, but thanks to regular appearances in tri-nation tournaments in Sharjah and other places they did learn to adapt over time.

In addition, I would say that a few personnel changes in the one-day side have affected things. NZ earlier had a good range of bowling options and lower-order hitting power that could win them matches in tight situations. Styris has retired and Vettori's appearances in the shorter form have been sporadic lately, and the bowling hasn't recovered yet. Batting-wise, ever since McCullum moved up to open and Oram forgot how to bat, the lower-order strength has been compromised.

I'm actually a bit  more optimistic about the test side, where a number of individuals like Williamson and Bracewell are beginning to settle nicely. Starting with the West Indies games, we're entering a rare bumper year in which NZ get to play 13 tests (ending with the tour to England next year), even if most of them are those annoyingly small two-test rubbers. The opportunity to develop is here, now it's up to the players to make the most of it.