KEY POINTS:
If anyone needed a reminder that the Black Caps are a bit short on experience all of a sudden then this week's events have provided it.
The young Black Caps batters are a bit off the pace and if I was among them I would be on the
phone to Martin Crowe - and pronto. I agree with the sentiments that came out of the television commentary box late in the Twenty20 match from Christchurch about a lack of international experience among the New Zealand team's various coaches. Crowe, Ian Smith and Mark Richardson were on the mark.
The New Zealand team is suffering through a mass exodus of experienced players, exacerbated by what's going on in India, and they need to consider every option to make up the ground. The newbies need to learn - and to learn quick - or this summer could be gone before they know it and the way to do that is to seek advice from the best.
When it comes to batting, Crowe is the best coach in this country by a million miles. He has helped the last generation of Black Caps batters and was largely responsible for teaching me how to play on my first tour to England in 1990. Crowie took me aside and spent hours with me in the nets. He taught me how to play spin bowling - I had no idea before then. He taught me about footwork, and how to use it at test level to succeed.
The lessons he imparted stayed with me for my entire career and he did so gladly. His attitude is also unique among Kiwis and the best lesson anyone ever taught me - it remains with me to this day. He dared to be the best - to be the best player in the world and committed himself to achieving that goal. Subsequently, he's done the same with Nathan Astle, Stephen Fleming and anyone else who has sought him out. All you need to do is to listen to him commentate to understand that he is talking about the craft of batting at a different level than what you will get from someone who hasn't actually been the best batsman in the world. If you want to learn how to bat, ring up Crowe. Our youngsters should show some initiative - they'll notice a difference after just two or three hours in the nets with the man.
Crowe has gone past the stage where he would be involved with the Black Caps in a formal way, but if Daniel Flynn rang him up today, he'd be rapt to help. He loves cricket, he's a technician, he knows footwork and is one of the greatest batsmen of all time.
And the Sky team were right - unless you have played at international level you can't understand the mechanics of it. It's a unique environment, you can't learn about it by reading a book.
There is a lot of experience around the game here and the new guys need to tap into that.
New Zealand's mass changing of the guard has been fully exposed already by England, who have quite impressed me.
They've made a lot of improvements in their bowling attack since last year in Australia and they have depth in their batting.
The big difference between the two sides at present is that due to injury especially, and retirements generally, our new guys don't have a core of senior players in the team to build their careers around, and it's showing.
Our one-day chances will rely entirely on Brendon McCullum, Jacob Oram, Scott Styris and Daniel Vettori. If they can play to their limits, we can match England.
But we are really going to struggle to keep pace with them in the tests.
The signs are worrying though. You need a big mismatch not to get a decent contest in Twenty20, which is what happened in both Auckland and Christchurch.
