Cricket: World have nothing to lose

Stephen Fleming is cautious about assessing his side's chances in today's one-dayer.

Stephen Fleming is wary of the threat from a team who play under no flag, have no history to live up to, and have absolutely nothing to lose.

The New Zealand captain sounded a note of caution yesterday as he assessed his side's chances in today's one-dayer against the FICA World XI, a collection of cricketing stars including the game's two most successful bowlers, Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan.

Amid much talk of experimentation, Fleming said people should not expect his side to deviate much from the tried and true after their recent successes, and particularly against a side as strong as the combined team.

"It's going to be tough playing against a side that doesn't have a fear factor, in that they don't have to deal with any consequences of the result," Fleming said yesterday.

"They'll be dangerous because they'll go out there and back themselves and play aggressively."

Among the batting threats facing his team are Sri Lankan pocket-battleship Sanath Jayasuriya, England Twenty20 guru Nick Knight and his former team-mate Graeme Hick, and prodigious strikers such as Lance Klusener and Kumar Sangakkara.

But the World XI's crowning glory is their bowling attack; the combination boasting not only the superstar pairing of Warne and Muralitharan, but also some very experienced practitioners in Chaminda Vaas, Heath Streak, Ian Harvey and Klusener.

Fleming believed it was one instance where that old saying about the champion team always beating the team of champions might be put to the test.

"They've got good players and it doesn't matter who they're playing against, they'll play the same way anyway. They're all very talented and when you've got so many stars, it kind of compensates for the missing team dynamic."

Fleming said New Zealand might well "tweak" a few of their options during the series, but he reasoned that wholesale experimentation was not advisable against such a formidable opponent as the World XI.

"Don't expect too much, but there are a couple of questions that John [Bracewell] would like answered, and it might mean some guys being used up the order," he said.

"On the other hand, we've won 80 per cent of our games over the past year so there's not going to be a lot of tinkering - there doesn't need to be."

The most likely change was the possibility of players such as Chris Cairns and Jacob Oram (not playing today) receiving more opportunity with the bat, a strategy that could help to transform the New Zealand team's batting into a more flexible and powerful unit.

In a game where predictability can be fatal, Fleming is more than a little interested in seeing if his one-day team's batting line-up can become more interchangeable depending on the circumstances, and go from good to great.

He said that was just one of a range of minor adjustments New Zealand would be considering during the three matches against the World XI.

"We've got to make sure that guys like Jacob Oram and Chris Cairns are not batting too low, and that we explore all possible options.

"We need to find out whether we can successfully use floaters, or whether we should be much more structured with our batting approach. I know we could find out in time, but we'll try to be a little more pro-active in this series."

As for the challenge of defusing Warne and Muralitharan, Fleming said his team could not afford to concentrate on just two players within the opposition camp, although he conceded that counter-strategies would certainly be discussed and attempted.

Together, the unlikely spin-twins have taken a total of 662 one-day wickets, and the Black Caps will be the first international side in the world to face the pair in tandem.

Fleming said the team management was taking care to not be overly prescriptive in terms of countering the pair, preferring to help the players form their own tactics and method.

"They're good bowlers but they're not unplayable," he said.

"We're not devising our entire plan around combating them.

"You saw how Ricky Ponting and Chris Cairns handled it in Melbourne - there's always ways and means."