Now that the Indian cricket tour is nearing the end, it's time to ask: Why have we been so nice to them?

In past tours here, India have never won a series. This year, it has looked a lordly procession never in doubt, well, not until the Black Caps' heroics of Napier anyway.

Talent, you might say. They have more of it.

You'd be right. Watching Sachin Tendulkar's magnificent 160 in the one-day series was a privilege; one of the best of its kind ever, anywhere.

It was no muscular or mindless slog but a master batsman at work, blending eye, hands, feet and body movement in a way that made even good bowling look inferior.

Jesse Ryder excellent, Sachin Tendulkar sublime.

If you go man-for-man through the two teams, there are few areas where the Black Caps match up.

So an Indian win would be the correct result, right?

Well, not necessarily. You see, there's this thing called a pitch. The home side prepares it.

If you have a team full of spinners, you can produce a dust bowl so your bowlers have an advantage. India do it all the time.

If you have medium-fast bowlers who can seam the ball, you prepare a green-top, where the grass allows movement - and even the Tendulkars of this world find that much harder going.

We've done it before. Successive Indian teams here have found unsympathetic pitches and New Zealand's battery of medium-fast bowlers snorting and pawing the ground, knowing the ball would fizz about and make batting uncomfortable.

That's why India hadn't won a series here - not because we were a better side. It was because people like Richard Hadlee (admittedly world-class), Richard Collinge, Danny Morrison, Daryl Tuffey and many more got some help from groundsmen.

Plus the Indians had to face New Zealand umpires.

Of course, some visiting teams cry foul but you'd think India wouldn't complain - over the years, they have produced spin-friendly tracks and home umpires when hosting teams.

In the days before they began to produce fast bowlers, they rolled the ball along the ground returning it to the bowler to scuff it up so the spinners could use it as quickly as possible.