As always, the Test XI of 2009 will be a major talking point as the merits of those who made the side and those left out are debated.

Choosing a Test team of the year can be hazardous. So far no lives have been lost, though it was a close run thing last year after Sachin Tendulkar was omitted. No amount of sweet words could convince offended parties that selection had been based on 12 months and not an entire career. In hindsight the criteria may have become too cut and dried, allowing the inclusion of one-year wonders. Accordingly, an adjustment has been made.

Only those performing well in 2009 have been considered but thereafter heed has been taken of records. Alas that has meant the exclusion of Thilan Samaraweera, the most productive batsman of the year (1234 runs at 72.6) and a miracle worker. It’s not so long ago that he was shot and almost killed when terrorists attacked the Sri Lankan bus. As usual, though, the side has been selected to win cricket matches, not as a slap on the back.

More than ever it is necessary to look beyond the statistics. Averages have been distorted this year by the free-scoring series between Sri Lankan and India. Four of the five highest scorers of the campaign are Sri Lankan. The Indian top order averaged variously 90, 70, 87, 67, 67 and 92.

They cannot all play. Even to concentrate on them means forgetting about Ross Taylor, Graeme Smith, Younus Khan, Chris Gayle, Michael Clarke, Jacques Kallis and so forth. As it happens, none of them made the cut anyhow, but all deserved consideration. Anyhow, here goes!

1 Virender Sehwag
Impossible to omit provided he has a presentable season. His ability to take attacks apart and to sustain his domination sets him apart. Sehwag is a great batsman and among the most devastating openers the game has known. His defence is immaculate and mostly mothballed as he plays his full range of shots from the first over. Impudent but rarely imprudent, his madness conceals a shrewd cricketing brain.

2 Andrew Strauss
Pipped higher scorers like Gautam Gambhir and Tillakaratne Dilshan due to the part he played in recovering the Ashes. Simply, he was the most influential batsman in a tight series. Read more…

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As someone who played with Shane Bond in his first four tests eight years ago, I was delighted, and pleasantly surprised, by his return to the five-day game at Dunedin last week.

But his latest injury, which has put him out of the current test in Wellington and next week’s third match against Pakistan in Napier, leaves me wondering how long this comeback will last.

The strong suspicion is that his test days are numbered. My advice would be to turn his attention to the one-day game.

The quality of his bowling in Dunedin was no surprise. We’ve long known he has the ability to be among the very best, as a record of 87 wickets in 18 tests shows.

Pakistan captain Mohammad Yousuf, a terrific batsman who has seen the best of the modern game, puts him among the finest he’s played.

The aspect which did surprise me was his pace. He’s 34, has been through the wringer in terms of injuries, and yet he was still able to get the ball through at about 150km/h.

If you’re above 140km/h you’re lively; touch 150km/h and that puts you in a different league.

Bond’s performance in its own right was outstanding, but one point seemed to be missed by most commentators - his work created opportunities for the bowlers at the other end.

Take the eight wickets out of the equation for a moment.

If you watched the Pakistan batsmen, Bond’s presence and pace made them change their game plan.

When he was bowling they were all pretty keen to get to the other end.

They were noticeably more aggressive against the other bowlers, which in turn meant they took more liberties against Chris Martin, Iain O’Brien and Daniel Vettori, and that led to Read more…

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Given it’s the time of year for messages to the North Pole under the heading “Dear Santa”, maybe the Black Caps’ list should start with the urgent need for an off-field boss.

With the 32-run win over Pakistan, the first in more than a year, the team are on the cusp of returning to a semblance of success on the stage all good sides are measured - test matches.

The return of Shane Bond’s venom, the wilyness of Chris Martin, the crisp strokes of Ross Taylor and the all-round cunning of Daniel Vettori mean the team have incumbent talent. Vettori was delighted with the victory and with good reason.

But, 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.

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? Is Jesse Ryder, a man blessed with sensational hand-eye co-ordination, capable of a prolonged career or will a lack of fitness or discipline get the better of him?

There was enough in the dismissals of batsmen like Flynn, Grant Elliott, Peter Fulton, and even Taylor and Vettori himself to suggest that more help would not go amiss.

In Vettori’s era as skipper, with coaches John Bracewell and Andy Moles, there have been 22 tests with five wins - three against Bangladesh, one against England and yesterday’s Read more…

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It must have seemed like such a good idea at the time. Let me take you back a few weeks when, in the wake of former Black Caps coach Andy Moles’ . . . ahem . . . resignation, Brendon McCullum was relieved of the team’s vice-captaincy.

In fact, the position was disestablished and it had nothing to do with the recession.

We were told it was so McCullum could concentrate on his faltering game and yes, we were taken for idiots and somehow expected to believe this.

We were also required to accept there was no line to be drawn between, and no inference to be taken from McCullum’s demotion and the sense that Moles had been the victim of a players’ revolt.

If any of you believed that, I would also expect to find you waiting by the fireplace, reindeer nibbles in hand, on Christmas morning.

The relationship between a coach and his captain is a delicate and critical one and Moles must have realised, despite his later protests, that once Daniel Vettori stopped taking his calls, there might have been the teensiest of problems. Why, having allowed this unholy mess in the first place, would New Zealand Cricket compound it by silencing one of its more effective dressing-room voices?

Yes, McCullum’s still there, still having his say, still being heard, and he has even rediscovered that form we had been told had deserted him.

So remind me again, what was the point of relieving him of the vice- captaincy in the first place? Was it just to make a point and if so, to whom? Who exactly did it serve, because I’m not buying that it was McCullum.

The person who is the captain of New Zeland is now also its vice- captain, coach and selector. I’m still not sure whether this is madness or genius but I’m pretty sure it can’t last for Read more…

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The New Zealand cricket team retrieved some ground but still made complete goats of themselves with that first up result in Abu Dhabi.

The players led the charge to get rid of the coach and then copped one of their worst losses of recent times.

Andy Moles wouldn’t have made any difference had he been there but that’s not the point.

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?

The way the show is being run at the moment, Daniel Vettori is, by some distance, the most powerful man in New Zealand cricket.

I’ve followed the game and its history in this country most of my life and I doubt there’s ever been a time since the New Zealand Cricket Council was formed in December 1894 when a player held as much influence on the field, at head office and around the board table.

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.

Ironically New Zealand’s best teams - those with Richard Hadlee and Martin Crowe at their peak between 1985 and 1990 - had so many good players that no individual was able to Read more…

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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.

With former coach Andy Moles dispatched, Vettori’s grip on the reins is complete.

Even Brendon McCullum’s voice in the dressing rooms has been muted by his public demotion from the vice-captaincy.

The cricket community and the media seemed to be in unison over Moles’ departure.

No-one, it appeared, was willing to suggest a mutiny had taken place or player power was getting out of hand.

Less than a year into his three-year contract, former Warwickshire opener Moles walked the plank with barely a squeak - no doubt silenced, to an extent, by the size of his pay-out.

Before splashdown he meekly complained about not being given the time to improve, and he rejected the perception he was ill-equipped to take the national side forward.

Given he got the job only when several higher-profile candidates withdrew, criticism was directed at New Zealand Cricket for rushing into the appointment.

Moles’ fate had been sealed by a poor report card on which the country’s leading players questioned whether he was up to the task.

Some of the same players flexed their muscle earlier in the year, when they delayed signing their national contracts until they had clarity around whether the inbound Australian tour Read more…

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What to do with Brendon McCullum? Here is a capable cricketer if you go by statistics; a brilliant cricketer if you’d rather watch the highlights.

He’s been on the scene for seven years now, his selection is unquestioned, he’s senior and, for all intents and purposes, the next in line to the captaincy.

Yet for some reason, he’s been cast into some sort of no-man’s land, with question marks over his performance as a player and leader.

We hear he will deputise for Daniel Vettori should Vettori get injured and yet he will no longer be officially regarded as the vice-captain.

He will continue to open in the United Arab Emirates but, arguably, only because any other options are deemed to be too inexperienced to be paired together.

There is no doubt the disestablishment of the vice-captaincy is designed as a kick in the posterior for McCullum but how hard a kick is it?

The official line is that because of poor recent results, he has been relieved of senior responsibilities.

This will reduce the load and allow him to concentrate on his batting at the top of the order.

If that is the case, then it is his second warning, given he has had the wicketkeeping gloves taken from him in recent history for the same reason.

However, that decision sounded as if it was a bit more mutual than the latest one.

Of more concern is the reported insinuation that his demotion is because his Read more…

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Dan Vettori has seldom spoken a truer couple of sentences than he did this week when looking ahead at how New Zealand will settle on a new national coach.

“We just want to sit back and make sure this process is as thorough as possible. We don’t want to be in a similar situation again,” he said.

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.

Do they want a hands-on operator, armed with skills to pass on to the players, providing a strong hand on the tiller? Or should he be an organiser, a backroom planner who makes sure everything is running smoothly, using specialist coaches for individual player needs, and take some load off Vettori?

The last two coaches, John Bracewell and Moles, came from opposite ends. Neither appeared an entirely happy fit with the players, for various reasons.

So what to do? Where to look?

There is only one candidate in New Zealand who would be considered, former captain and Indian coach John Wright. He has received less than resounding endorsements from both NZC chief executive Justin Vaughan and Vettori, who have talked of the need to find the right fit for Wright, so to speak.

If he is discounted, then it’s overseas NZC must go, and perhaps to swallow a Read more…

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Coaching crises and off-field anarchy are usually Pakistan’s domain, although New Zealand have attempted to level the playing field with Andy Moles’ untimely demise on the eve of their three-match one-day cricket series.

Add in Brendon McCullum losing the vice-captaincy and for once New Zealand can rival their opponents in the controversy stakes.

Pakistan’s preparations have been laced with rumours of match-fixing, talk of a fallout between senior players and the skipper’s resignation then reinstatement.

New Zealand leave for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) today coach-less although by no means rudderless, as Daniel Vettori’s powers are all encompassing for the time being.

Captain, selector, leading allrounder and for now, acting coach. And it seems Vettori will remain the master of all trades for the three test series against Pakistan starting in Dunedin on November 24.

“Now every single person in the squad has to pick up a little bit of the slack,” Vettori said. “People will still expect us to win, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t, and that’s the mindset that we have to have going away.

“We need to win these games to take some pressure off what’s happening here.”

New Zealand Cricket does not want to rush to find Moles’ replacement and is Read more…

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New Zealand’s senior players want Andy Moles as their friend but not as their cricket coach.

The affable Englishman has struggled with the transition from taking a first-class side to an international one and patience has run out.

This is not player power, it is a plea for help.

Daniel Vettori’s men are not angels, but neither are they backstabbers. They have voiced their concerns through the correct channels and were not the leak to The Dominion Post.

This team wants to do better but the consensus is it can no longer carry Moles and his sidekick, Mark O’Donnell, along for the ride.

The players’ reviews claim Moles has offered little of substance technically or tactically since replacing John Bracewell 12 months ago.

Bad habits have also been allowed to go unpunished and Vettori has been forced to take up the slack. Vettori is not Superman. Next he’ll be driving the team bus.

The players are not the only ones to have voiced concerns about Moles’ coaching ability. It was uncovered yesterday that NZC’s High Performance Centre and some support staff had also tabled concerns and that NZC chief executive Justin Vaughan was becoming increasingly alarmed.

The situation has parallels with New Zealand rugby league in 2007.

The Kiwis wanted to lift their standards and realised that, in coach Gary Kemble, they did not have the right man in the driver’s seat. Stephen Kearney swept in and a World Cup was won.

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 Read more…

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