Richard Boock: Black Caps still treated as the poor cousins

COMMENT

They might have soared to unprecedented heights on the world rankings, but the New Zealand one-day side's fight for credibility continues on the ground.

During a week in which the New Zealand team not only won the Natwest final but also cemented their place as the second best side in the world, none of their players could win selection in an unofficial World XI to play Australia.

The theoretical world side was chosen by 22 journalists from the so-called bible of cricket, Wisden-Cricinfo, for next year's inaugural Super Series contest against the No 1-ranked side, Australia.

A sobering point for Kiwi cricket fans was that no New Zealander received enough votes to qualify for the World side, despite the fact that the only team above them on the ODI rankings was unavailable for selection.

Chosen during the week leading up to the Natwest final, which New Zealand won convincingly to extend their unbeaten sequence to nine matches, the judges instead opted for a mix of four Indians, two South Africans, two Englishmen, a West Indian, a Pakistani and a Sri Lankan.

Surprisingly, they could find no room for Chris Cairns - generally acknowledged as the most destructive all-rounder in the game - yet were won over by the still-dubious credentials of Indian utility Yuvraj Singh.

There was also a heavily accented Indian approach to the issue of the wicketkeeping responsibilities, a task that was handed to Rahul Dravid - a nice enough batsman but probably the worst gloveman on the international circuit.

It might have been that the Indian selectors felt compelled to use Dravid as a wicketkeeper because of their lack of genuine all-rounders, but the same could not be said for the mock World XI, who included nine players who had bowled at ODI level.

Far better surely, and particularly with bowlers such as Muttiah Muralitharan and Shoaib Akhtar in action, that the World team should boast one of the better wicketkeeper batsmen on the circuit - someone like a Mark Boucher, a Kumar Sangakkara or a Brendon McCullum.

There's little doubt that the inclusion of a more reputable wicketkeeper would have caused difficulties for the selectors, in that someone else would have to be jettisoned; an uneasy assignment given the quality of the players already chosen.

But there were certainly options available.

The most obvious was the argument that, with a bowling attack comprising Akhtar, Andy Flintoff, Cairns, Jacques Kallis and Murali, and with back-up available from Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar, another specialist paceman was an unnecessary extravagance.

Translated, that meant leaving out England's star fast-bowler Steve Harmison, who, in any case, was about as nimble as an Orewa mobility scooter.

There was also the question of whether Dravid, for all his heroics on the test scene, was the ideal player to be batting at No 5 in a 50-over match, and whether the World XI would have been better off with Stephen Fleming at the helm, and slotting in at No 3. Since the start of last year's tour of India, the New Zealand skipper has proved one of the most in-form batsmen in the world, scoring 859 runs at 47.72, including a couple of centuries and three 50s.

To illustrate the point, in the past three series he has averaged 62 against Pakistan, 44 against South Africa and 50.80 against England, while also leading the side to 13 wins from 15 ODIs.

Not that the Wisden scribes seemed to notice anything to do with New Zealand these days, but under Fleming's reign, his side have won three ODI tournaments or tri-series in the past four years - and all on foreign soil.

Doubtless there will be frustrations in the New Zealand camp that they're still being treated as the poor cousins of world cricket, and that they seem destined to play little part in the Super Series of the future.

But there is at least one way to ensure a much bigger participation in the following series - by moving up one more place in the rankings.

The two teams - spot the Kiwis

Wisden Cricinfo's World ODI team:

Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Jacques Kallis, Brian Lara, Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh, Andrew Flintoff, Shaun Pollock, Shoaib Akhtar/Chaminda Vaas, Steve Harmison, Muttiah Muralitharan

Richard Boock's World team:

Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Stephen Fleming (captain), Jacques Kallis, Brian Lara, Chris Cairns, Andrew Flintoff, Mark Boucher, Shaun Pollock, Shoaib Akhtar, Muttiah Muralitharan.