Mark Richardson: Nothing gained in series

Andy McKay bowled tidily but was far from penetrative. Photo / Paul Estcourt

It was good in theory - send a team minus some key players and the captain to play a couple of teams that should be competitive come World Cup time in conditions that should mimic World Cup conditions.

It was a great development opportunity. Unfortunately plan A did not come together. In fact plan B and C were probably left up in the air too.

The Black Caps got very little out of the tri-series in Sri Lanka; all they got was knocked out in inglorious fashion.

It began so well, with a massive victory over India and a move to No 2 in the ODI rankings; it finished with the usual sour taste and a tumble to No 6.

If you take the right attitude, you learn just as much if not more from your failings as your successes. So, in theory on this tour, our team could learn plenty. However, the weather washed theory aside.

First problem - the World Cup in the subcontinent is February to April so, as far as seasons go, that's six months difference to now.

New Zealand's tournament was rain-affected but, worse, conditions were weather-affected. Pitches looked variable, offered plenty to the seamers, turned square and generally favoured the bowlers. I don't think this will be the case come the World Cup.

New Zealand may have been rolled for 118 in their last turn at bat but they weren't alone. India also struggled and were dismissed cheaply. The cricket lacked consistency, making it hard to identify trends.

So I'm not going to judge the New Zealand batting on this tournament alone.

It's a shame because if there was some real progress to be made, it would have been to see how good young Kane Williamson could be. His performance carried the most interest. Unfortunately we're none the wiser after he got three swinging, seaming deliveries resulting in scores of 0, 0 and 13.

The other interest was how penetrative Andy McKay would be. He bowled tidily but was far from penetrative - two wickets in three games - but, again, these were far from typical subcontinent conditions.

It was also a chance for Ross Taylor to gain more international captaincy experience but how much influence does a captain really have when match trends are so one-sided?

Continuing the glass half-empty analysis, you'd also have to say not much was learned because the usual suspects did all the performing - Kyle Mills with the ball, Taylor and Scott Styris with the bat.

Yep, as everyone was saying, this was just another one of those meaningless one-day tournaments somewhere in the subcontinent.