Maddening, McCullum and Mail Bag

Hello and welcome back to my blog

The New Zealand team continues to push the 'best' side in the world over in India this week, refusing to live in a lugubrious state of being like the rest of us; I hope they can maintain their intensity for the whole series. Having said that I do have some thoughts:

• Daniel Vettori finally picked up his 19th 5WB but went for 130+ runs to do it despite taking his 4th wicket having only conceded 91 runs. Try and as he might, he was unable to remove the last wicket (a period of tired and terrible cricket that could have proven fatal today) and his struggle highlighted a major short-fall in his game. The great spinners have always been able to run through the tail-end of a team by spinning the ball - think Warne and Murali here - Vettori lacks this skill and thus takes much longer to pick up nine, ten and jack. Probably too late to change this but it is certainly a weakness the team needs to address and with a different bowler
• I must be running out of hats to devour in shame during this series. Brendon McCullum defied my criticism and scored a very nicely constructed test century last night and showed the kind of patience required at this level by turning it into a double to draw the match. I will say that I am glad to be proven wrong so far on this point
• If the question mark over McCullum has been removed this has only emphasised another one, two spots down the list over Ross Taylor's head. He has failed to have the impact in India that he had at home against Australia and India in the last two seasons and appears to have no real idea how to play. His quality continues to appear in an on-drive or flick through mid-wicket but seems to be quickly negated and forgotten by a poor piece of defence - the delivery that got him last night (an inswinger) moved less sideways than his bat did across the line

I can't help but feel that this series may turn out to be as maddening as a whack-a-mole game

Now to the mail-bag, to borrow a term from Murray Deaker of Sky Sports, a few weeks ago a fan of the blog posted a comment of equal length to the relevant post (Playing cricket doesn't make you a journalist anymore than being blind makes you an optometrist ) and thus I felt it fair to reply in this form as opposed to tacking another comment below his. In his comment there are several points and questions which I would like to address here:

First is the concern over Roger Mortimer (high performance manager) and whether his expertise with the fitness and discipline of singular athletes is suited to a team sport. I admit that this question worries me as well, it seems like the whole exercise could be a waste. Can Mortimer relate to the pressures of batsmen out in the middle? What does he know of cricket technique? I honestly don't think this role is required in a cricket team (at least not in the form of a separate coach/manager) but it did occur to me that the relative inexperience of the players may require something new, like this to bridge the gap between them and their international colleagues. I therefore recommend patience on this point
The comment also states that Daniel Vettori should remain a selector and that every captain should have some influence on selection. There are many arguments supporting this assertion and I personally think that this is the way to go in the small cricketing nations but let me ask you this: can you honestly see this working in India and Pakistan where the political in-fighting and favours are rife. As a rule of thumb I would say that if you charge a captain and coach with rebuilding a team then they deserve a say in selection
Third point was that the 4-0 loss in Bangladesh was more educational than disastrous. I think I know what he means here but if he could elaborate that would be great - I can foresee a good discussion in this area
Now we reach my major disagreement with the fan's comment, the pushing for John Wright to be a coach NOW. First I wish to point out that I never said he wasn't needed, my thinking was that it would be cruel to bring him in 5 months before a World Cup. The team deserves more faith than that, Greatbatch deserves more time and certainly Wright deserves more respect. I don't wish to sound strident but I firmly disagree with what appears to me to be a knee-jerk reaction that I know the fan to be above
Lastly, the suggestion that the All Black coaching model of using coaches for specific roles (like batting, bowling and fielding?) is an interesting thought. Correct me if I'm wrong here but don't England currently do this? I won't say I don't like the idea but it might be prudent at this point to mention Bob Simpson, who with Allan Border crafted one of the greatest cricket sides in the world between 1986 and 1996 without such a structure. Their approach was very basic, create the best fielding, most disciplined and fittest team in the world out of young and talented men and the success will follow. Could well work for the Black Caps under Vettori and Greatbatch although I doubt we would allow them 10 years to do it

Well that's it from here and I hope you join me again
It's good bye for now