KEY POINTS:
New Zealand tried to put the Gilchrist affair to bed yesterday, but failed to tuck the sheets in.
What should have been a straightforward resolution of what had become a hopeless mess produced more questions than answers.
New Zealand manager Lindsay Crocker was left to repair the damage
caused by coach John Bracewell's erroneous questioning of Australian wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist's absence from the Chappell Hadlee Trophy decider in Hobart tomorrow.
He issued an apology from Bracewell, but the wording hardly cleared the mist.
Gilchrist was given the game off, as part of Cricket Australia's unofficial rotation policy.
For some reason Bracewell put the word out at a press conference on Monday that there was more to the matter than met the eye, but would not be specific, fuelling all manner of speculation.
Crocker said Bracewell's comments had been designed to head off suggestions Australia were sufficiently confident about the outcome in Hobart that they were resting a key player "when he understood there was more to it than that".
That didn't make much sense, but Crocker said the New Zealand management had heard "that perhaps there were other reasons why he wasn't playing the game.
"We also weren't sure what the official line was at the time either, so he accidentally wandered into something that in retrospect is not accurate."
The management got wind that the coach had stuck his size 12s right in it during the flight to Hobart. When he arrived in Tasmania, Bracewell phoned Gilchrist to apologise.
Asked where Bracewell got the idea that some other force was at play in Gilchrist's omission, Crocker said it was a "team management understanding".
"Rumours went around. I can't tell you the actual source."
Bracewell "regrets any ill-feeling in the Gilchrist household. Adam was grateful for the call", Crocker added.
It would have been far better had Bracewell fronted up and given his apology in person. He would not talk yesterday.
As a player, Bracewell never shirked a challenge. Here he had two opportunities to douse the flames inside 24 hours. He could have issued a quick "Oops, I got it wrong, sorry, let's move on" upon arriving in Hobart. Then he could have stumped up with a mea culpa yesterday morning. Again, a missed chance.
But while Bracewell got the ball rolling, the New Zealand management must bear some collective responsibility for the mess which will only harden Australia's resolve to dish out a sound thrashing at Bellerive Oval.
It's standard policy for strategies to be prepared for a range of possible questioning. Why bother to even float an unsubstantiated rumour on Gilchrist's position?
Team management should have twisted Bracewell's arm to front up in person. In confusing times, clearing the air swiftly is always the best, most efficient policy.
Australia rate Bracewell as a loose cannon. He's got form for interesting theories when New Zealand are playing Australia.
They range from alleging the speed ball radar had been juiced up to put their own quick bowlers in a more menacing light; suggesting the Australians were vulnerable the longer a test lasted, even though round that time they had a tendency to win matches without much need of a fifth day; and claiming a Brisbane pitch had been swapped late to favour Australia.
The player who will take Gilchrist's wicketkeeping gloves tomorrow, Brad Haddin, probably spoke for his team on the issue yesterday.
"I'm not too concerned with what John Bracewell says," he said.
"I'm not even going to justify his comments with a comment of my own.
"If they want to throw whatever they can, by all means go ahead."
Australia, 1-0 up but vulnerable to a last-gasp resurgence from New Zealand - for whom a win will mean retention of the Chappell Hadlee Trophy - spent three hours at the nets yesterday.
The New Zealanders put their feet up or headed for the golf course.
