Cricket: Heat on Gibbs has NZ woes melting away

Say what you like about New Zealand's preparation for tonight's Champions Trophy opener against South Africa, but at least no one's worried about being hauled off to the cells.

In contrast to South Africa, New Zealand's buildup for the showdown at Brabourne Stadium has involved nothing more dramatic than players keeling over from heat-stroke and the occasional near-miss in traffic; routine stuff in the bedlam of Mumbai.

The most pressing issue for New Zealand coach John Bracewell right now is not whether he'll have enough bail money for his top-order, but whether players such as Shane Bond and Scott Styris can avoid melting in the extreme heat.

Granted, Bracewell is also faced with a tough call over his batting order for tonight, but after the dual-failure of Peter Fulton in the two practice matches so far, it seems his problems will be relatively minor.

On the other hand, included in South Africa's lead-up to the Pool B opener has been a 2 1/2-hour police interrogation of star batsman Herschelle Gibbs over historic match-fixing allegations.

The dashing right-hander had already admitted accepting money from disgraced former captain Hansie Cronje in return for underperforming in a one-dayer in India six years ago.

He was suspended and fined by the South African authorities despite scoring 74 on the occasion in question, but has never returned to India with the South African team until this month.

There's also been intense media coverage over Indian police claims that Gibbs fingered three teammates in his interview, although reports since suggest this involved the already outed Derek Crookes, Nicky Boje and Pieter Strydom.

The stress has been so acute on Gibbs that at the weekend it was reported that he still feared being arrested after the police interview, even as he was batting in a practice match against a Mumbai XI.

For all that, South African team spokesman Gordon Templeton told Reuters at the weekend that Gibbs had put the episode behind him and was now able to fully concentrate on his commitments, particularly the match against New Zealand.

"Herschelle is now concentrating on what he does best - playing cricket," said Templeton. "He's happy his meeting with the senior Delhi police officials went well."

New Zealand have a particularly lean record against South Africa at neutral venues, having lost 12 of the 16 outings so far, and will head into tonight's game with question marks over several players.

Bond's fragilities in extreme heat have already been well documented, Styris and Daniel Vettori were both overcome by the humidity on Friday and - to make matters worse - all three are on the comeback trail after injury.

Add the rehabilitating Jacob Oram and Kyle Mills to the list and you can see why Bracewell will be watching with fingers crossed.

At any other time he would almost certainly stick with the tried and true in terms of his line-up, but there's just a chance that he may be tempted to give Wellington paceman Mark Gillespie a run tonight, if only because of his exemplary fitness.

If not, there should be few surprises, with Stephen Fleming, Lou Vincent and Nathan Astle at the top of the order, Styris, Hamish Marshall and Oram in the middle, and Brendon McCullum marshalling a tail of Vettori, James Franklin, Mills and Bond.

South Africa, meanwhile, can at least point to three ODIs against Zimbabwe in terms of recent match-play, although whether the Zimbabweans could be considered worthy opponents is a moot point.

South Africa's latest series against New Zealand was in September last year, when they overran Fleming's side 4-0, winning on several occasions after initially finding themselves behind the eight-ball.

The teams

* New Zealand: Stephen Fleming (c), Lou Vincent, Nathan Astle, Scott Styris, Hamish Marshall, Jacob Oram, Brendon McCullum, Daniel Vettori, James Franklin, Kyle Mills, Shane Bond, Mark Gillespie, Jeetan Patel, Peter Fulton.

* South Africa: Graeme Smith (c), Loots Bosman, Mark Boucher, AB de Villiers, Boeta Dippenaar, Herschelle Gibbs, Andrew Hall, Jacques Kallis, Justin Kemp, Charl Langeveldt, Andre Nel, Makhaya Ntini, Robin Peterson, Shaun Pollock.