Chris Rattue: The Black Caps are awful

Summer provided some fascinating moments, mostly from the tourists. Cartoon / Rod Emmerson

It has been a cricketing summer of relentless frustration and fascination.

It ended on an inevitable note yesterday, as a classy Indian side continued to humiliate the Black Caps.

This is no place for excuses and while we may not be overly good at cricket, we shouldn't be this bad. Sometimes, the Black Caps are absolute rubbish.

I can't let this moment go without referring back to the statements from the Black Caps coach Andy Moles before the final day of the second test in Napier, a game played on a wicket so benign that it made our batters look world class. And that takes some doing.

"There is a lot of confidence in our dressing room," Moles opined, as if he was in charge of Manchester United.

"We know we can score runs and bowl the Indians out ... moving to the next test we will be full of confidence."

What a load of nonsense, and anyone with any sort of cricket knowledge - and an Indian team list - knew that the Napier escape was a mirage.

Tendulkar, Laxman, Dravid, Sehwag, Harbhajan, Sharma, Khan, Dhoni ... what a lineup, and it has been a privilege to have them here.

And what can we throw back at that - Guptill, McIntosh, a number six like James Franklin, and fresh faced Tim Southee. Ouch.

Come on Mr Moles, we ain't that stupid.

The Black Caps are, let's face it, pretty awful by world test standards. It is a case of hanging on and hoping for better days. But the summer of cricket was still fascinating. Chris Gayle, the languid West Indian captain of enormous batting power and a good sense of life, will never be forgotten. This Indian team is rewriting history. The good spirit between New Zealand and their opponents should also be held up for applause.

History determines our expectations. Had the All Blacks returned test results like the cricketing ones against India, there would be howling in the streets. When the cricketers get a pasting, we grimace and try to bear it.

And it wasn't all bad.

Downbeat Jesse Ryder made us upbeat, and Ross Taylor continued to deliver in erratic doses. Iain O'Brien is a genuine character deserving admiration. The TV commentators shone. O'Brien writes a groundbreaking blog. Small change, I know, but worth remembering.

I'll own up here and confess that I can barely remember what happened in the one-day games, and don't want to remember anything about Twenty20 cricket. They are for others to enjoy.