Adam Parore: Repeat test drought may kill NZ game

The test series between Australia and Pakistan has been left as the major talking point for cricket fans here, which is a pretty strange situation and one I find hard to figure out.

Here we are in the New Year with no international cricket in New Zealand, which is a sorry state of affairs.

I'm not sure who is to blame but if this was to go on for two or three summers, it could just about be the death of the game here.

When the international programme does kick off again, it will be against Bangladesh, and while we are doing our bit for the development of their cricket, no one really wants to watch them play. (We seem to play Bangladesh all the time, whereas Australia only does so about once every four years).

And as everyone knows, cricket crunches up against the Super rugby later in the summer, when the Aussies will be here.

One of cricket's problems, it is claimed, is that people do not have the time to watch long matches. And yet, this is the perfect time of year for fans to sit down and watch the game, the trouble being the Black Caps are not playing.

The cricket has been on TV constantly in our house and while I don't watch it all the time, I have caught large chunks of the series across the Tasman.

Pakistan certainly went to extraordinary lengths to find ways to lose the second test to Australia.

I've long argued that any team that holds all its catches has every chance of being in the hunt on the fifth day of a test and I think the Sydney match bore this theory out.

Pakistan have put down a horrendous amount of catches here and in Australia - probably around the 30 mark in the last five tests. The wicketkeeper dropped Mike Hussey three times, and there was the winning and losing of the match.

Unfortunately Australia's victory didn't hide the fact that they are at a low ebb by their standards - this is the moment in cricket history when any team would most fancy playing Australia, and our guys must be excited by the prospect.

Looking ahead, Mitchell Johnson might be the bowler to trouble New Zealand the most - but there is not too much to fear from their pace attack.

As an orthodox off spinner, Nathan Hauritz should have little joy in the test arena. Historically most batsmen have known that when an off spinner comes on, it is time to cash in. Typically the only spinners to worry too much about are the ones who can also spin the ball the other way.

It was only when Saqlain Mushtaq came along with his doosra, and then Muttiah Muralitharan, that problems for batsmen arose in facing offspinners.

The Aussies should still get the runs against New Zealand's attack though, and I'd imagine Ricky Ponting will turn out to be the danger man against us again.

Recent Australian teams have probably had the highest rate of centuries scored by their top six batsmen - something the current crop is struggling to live up to.