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Sep 18, 2008
By Chris Matthews

CEO Justin Vaughan understandably has reservations of sending the Black Caps to face Bangladesh.

New Zealand Cricket finds itself in a serious pickle. Up to 13 leading Bangladeshi players are reportedly on the verge of signing for the rebel Indian Cricket League right on the eve of the Black Caps tour.

I would name them but what's the point? They could all be called John Smith as far as you, I and the rest of the cricketing world are concerned. Their lame impact on the Test stage has yielded just one  victory in 53 attempts.

And that was against? You guessed it - the other powerhouse of world cricket, Zimbabwe.

But lest we forget it took a certain New Zealand side 27 years of agony and 38 Test matches to break their own duck on the international stage.

Nevertheless, the Blacks Caps were always likely to trample all over Bangladesh in their October tour but it is the threat of playing the number one nation in the world just after, that is of grave concern.

New Zealand will play two tests against Australia in November. So as it stands, the Black Caps will warm-up for the biggest mission in world cricket playing a team of international rookies, while the Australians have a four-Test tour of India.

Their eagerly awaited series will be of the highest quality and the Blacks Caps will undoubtedly feel the aftershock of a battle hardened Australia immediately after.

Justin Vaughan agrees that playing a depleted Bangladesh is hardly ideal.

But hey, it at least provides an opportunity for the players to improve their averages.

Aaron Redmond's selection over Peter Fulton is curious, especially when you consider Fulton's match winning form in New Zealand A's current tour of Australia and India.

The selectors though had to persevere with Redmond after trumping for him in the first place. The man himself will be stoked that he gets a chance to improve his single digit average (9.0) against the lollypops that will come his way. If he fails - he's gone!

It is also an excellent opportunity for Jamie How to find a breakthrough century and for Daniel Flynn to warm further into his new found middle order role.

Jesse Ryder's introduction into the Test scene will be of interest and although he's still fighting his demons with the bottle, let's hope he can relive some of the form that blew the nations mind in the one day series against England at the beginning of the year.

What a tantalising prospect it is to have Ryder, Ross Taylor, Jacob Oram and Brendon McCullum forming the nucleus of an explosive middle order. All these players, providing good health, should have at least five years together terrorising bowling attacks the world over.

Jeetan Patel's form against Australia A earlier in the week is also promising. His match winning spell cleaned up their tail and highlighted once again Australia's susceptibility to right arm off-spin.

India and their usually considered off-spinner, Harbhajan Singh, are warming up the pre-series hype saying that Ricky Ponting's technique is rubbish against his venomous flight. Singh has dismissed Ponting eight times and believes he will continue to expose him and the rest of the Australians on the sub-continent.

Daniel Vettori has also had success against the Aussies, collecting six of his 15 five-wicket bags against them.

So I'm going to say it now and keep on saying it! The only way New Zealand has any chance on their two-test tour of Australia is to play duel spinners.

Note: The two-test, three-ODI series starts against Bangladesh starts on October 9.