Where next for New Zealand cricket?

Martin Crowe is obviously very concerned about the way New Zealand cricket is heading and it's easy to see why when stories of players filling out forms at the end of a day's play emerge. I'm all for analysis but at the end of a day's play? Post match might be more suitable....

The problem for New Zealand is that their players have to learn in Test cricket so they need longer than some other countries to become accustomed to playing at the higher level. What they must avoid at all costs is inconsistent selection of the sort that got England into problems in the late 80s and early 90s. I think it would be fair to say that domestic cricket in New Zealand is not going to compete even with County cricket, let alone Australian state cricket. So there will always be a mismatch between the likes of Mike Hussey and Daniel Flynn.

Hussey of course had the luxury of learning his trade against the best players in the world, despite not breaking into the Test side for many years. By the time he came in, he looked like a man who had been there and done that, for whom the step up was entirely manageable. In fact, he took to Test cricket so easily that many assume that the selectors took too long to select him. Flynn on the other hand showed a little bit of skill as the captain of New Zealand Under 19s and then got a couple of big scores for Northern Districts which catapulted him into international cricket. He was always going to need a lot of games to start to maximise his potential, and that's if he can overcome the morale issues that come with learning in public in international matches.

The likes of Flynn and the others in the New Zealand side that are learning on the job, should consider the Mark Boucher example. He was a fish completely out of water when he first played for South Africa but the persevered with him and he's come good. So my route for New Zealand would be to try to expose the top players who are on the verge of selection to international standard opposition as much as possible. Send them off to play in First Class cricket in other countries in the same way as Monty Panesar was going to play for Bloomfields in Sri Lanka. And having selected them, stick with them as they continue to learn until such time as there is someone who is undoubtedly better (amongst many other things of course!).

It will be interesting to see how Andy Moles goes.