Adam Parore: 'Malinga the Slinger' is crude but effective

Not since the days of oddball South African spinner Paul Adams have we had a more outrageous bowling action in international cricket than Lasith Malinga.

But you can't doubt the effectiveness of the young Sri Lankan with the round-arm action after he bagged nine wickets in the drawn first test against New Zealand in Napier.

Adams' action was famously described as looking like a frog in a blender. I don't know what nickname will be given to Malinga's slingers, but it is certainly a peculiar action.

I don't much care for it, for all it's novelty value. A couple of thoughts: quite rightly there's been no suggestion that it's illegal.

It's not, because he comes through about 45 degrees above the horizontal, and with the new, relaxed laws on the bending of the arm in the delivery action, Malinga is fine as regards any question of throwing.

Secondly, I suspect he won't last, or at least won't be successful over a long period.

The better sides will work him out after a few innings.

Where he is difficult is with the trajectory he produces. He can be slippery and his action is tailormade for firing in yorker after yorker, and reverse swing will come naturally.

But with his action he is not going to drill away just outside the off-stump, sticking to a tight line and length, looking to catch the outside edge.

As he will pose another threat in the second test at Wellington next week, here's one solution for batsmen to reduce his effectiveness.

Stand a metre or so outside the crease. That will greatly reduce the chance of being out leg-before to reverse swing.

It was a tactic I adopted against Pakistani speedster Waqar Younis at Eden Park a few years ago.

Waqar was a master of reverse swing, but the move worked. I made a few runs, but there were two outcomes: it was highly effective but as it significantly reduced the gap between the time he released the ball and the ball reaching me, it gave me more than a few jitters.

What did the first test tell us about New Zealand? The main point was it reinforced how good Australia are.

Players such as Hamish and James Marshall and James Franklin, young guys who could be integral parts of the test side in the years ahead, prospered and look to have come through the Australian series the better for the experience.

I'll guarantee that given a choice between playing Sri Lanka next week or getting another crack at the Australians, the New Zealand players would choose the Aussies. It's all about testing yourself against the best. Still, it's too late for those thoughts now.

I just hope the ground staff at the Basin Reserve prepare a green-top pitch for Monday.

Our chances of getting 20 wickets will be better in Wellington than they were on the sealed road at McLean Park this week.

Sri Lanka's batsmen are classy and experienced, so let's not make life any easier for them.

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Hats off to Auckland for their State Championship title, the third in four years. They dominated the championship, were deserving winners and clearly the best team in the country.

It is the ideal way for Aaron Barnes and maybe Brooke Walker and Kerry Walmsley to finish their first-class careers. They will go out on a high.

Barnes is definitely finishing, Walker has signalled this could be the end, and the whisper is Walmsley might go too.

Walmsley was a good, sharp, aggressive fast bowler who I believe will sit back in a few years and realise he should have played more than three tests. Unfortunately, he couldn't stay fully fit for a lengthy period.

Walker was an above-average legspinner who did well on the tour to South Africa in 2000-01, but who had terrible timing: his career coincided with Daniel Vettori.

One thought: how come Auckland were so good in the four-day stuff but dreadful in their one-day matches?