KEY POINTS:
It was interesting to hear Daniel Vettori, the most prolific spinner in New Zealand cricket history, saying that his type of bowler could go the way of the moa because of our seam-friendly pitches.
Vettori has moved ahead of Chris Cairns as New Zealand's most successful test bowler behind Sir Richard Hadlee and he has won all manner of deserved plaudits for, among other things, being the youngest spinner in the world to take 100 test wickets.
Comment has been passed about Vettori's lean pickings of late - just 11 wickets in his past six tests at a cost of 37 runs apiece - and he has been sparingly used. He last took a five-wicket bag against Australia in Christchurch nearly two years ago, and has had most of his recent success away from home.
Vettori's complaint was that New Zealand's pitches - batsman-friendly or seamer-friendly but hardly ever conducive to spin - might make spinners an endangered species. New Zealand cricket would struggle overseas if they did not find more.
Certainly, Vettori's statistics back him up. His wickets and averages are worse in New Zealand than overseas. Vettori's increasing prominence with the bat has led to comment - some of it his own - that he could move into a full all-rounder's role.
There are two allied issues - first, that the spinner is dying out on New Zealand's pitches which suit the dibbly-dooblys; second, that Vettori is yet to become an all-rounder.
The plain fact is that the pitches were ever thus. In the 102-year history of New Zealand test cricket, we have produced only six spinners who have taken more than 50 wickets - Vettori (219), John Bracewell (102), Hedley Howarth (86), Dipak Patel (75), Stephen Boock (74) and Paul Wiseman (61). Jack Alabaster, the Otago leg-spinner, took 49 and is the only wrist-spinner of note among our test tweakers.
This is not a proud record, notwithstanding the quality of most of those bowlers. So why do we not produce more spinners? Vettori is right - the pitches do not help. Victor Pollard, the off-spinning all-rounder of the 1960s solved the problem by bowling his offies at medium-pace, bypassing many of the spinner's arts of flight and subtle changes of pace.
But it's also a mindset. Young cricketers who take up the sport go for medium-fast bowling because spinners tend to get tonked early. Getting tonked is not a wonderful experience when young (it ain't too great later in life, either). It tends to make would-be spinners bowl medium pace or do something more rewarding, like having a root canal.
Finger spinning is one thing, wrist-spinning quite another. Most tyro leg-spinners have difficulty pitching the ball. Shane Warne's art is enormously difficult to attempt, let alone master.
I know of one young hopeful who tried leg-spin only to frustrate his coach beyond endurance because of his inability to bowl anything other than wrong 'uns and where the appearance of a standard leg-spinner became a cause for much celebration after long hours in the nets.
It's also unfair to mention Warne in this context. He is the best bowler these tired old eyes have ever seen, never mind just the best spinner. He could get turn on a sheet of wet aluminium and captains rarely have to worry about him being given the old heave-ho by batsmen.
The answer is as it has always been - identify the kids young; guide, mentor and coach them past the pain of being a developing spinner. But it has never happened in New Zealand, in spite of lots of words and efforts. There remains a gap between schools, clubs and coaching academies that has never successfully been filled - although Patel has recently received a grant to do this at a 'spin academy'.
So what about Vettori's batting? On the grounds that he has averaged 42.1 in test cricket over the past two years, including one of his two test centuries, I have no doubt that the term 'all-rounder' can easily be settled on Vettori's shoulders. Stephen Fleming's average over the same period is 45.6 - and that includes his double centuries against Bangladesh and South Africa.
Some are now banging on about lifting Vettori up the order. This would be an error. Vettori is mentally strong and has excellent hand-eye coordination. But he is to exemplary batsmanship what Britney Spears is to knickers sales.
He has a beautiful cut/slash and scores a lot of runs by putting bowlers off their length by hog-wrestling them through the leg-side - ugly but highly effective.
His strength is that he has found a perfect niche batting at No 8. All right, 7 might be a possibility but we should leave him down the tail where he is a key part of New Zealand's mental confidence in the ability of that tail to wag.
He has good defence; can shore up an end with a good batsman; and can attack while another tailender clings on.
No, bat him where he is. And bowl him more, in spite of his dicky back. He is a world-class bowler, capable of excellent flight, change of pace and subtlety.
We just need to use him; he will repay the investment.
But that's not down to pitches. It's down to the skipper.
