Cricket: Fleming facing crisis with bat and as captain

By RICHARD BOOCK

New Zealand cricket captain Stephen Fleming is not only facing a run-scoring crisis these days, but also some fairly impertinent questions about his leadership.

The one-time elegant lefthander has found himself in the worst form of his life since leaving New Zealand in August, compiling a record which would have ended in certain axing for a lesser batsman.

The youngest player ever appointed New Zealand captain, Fleming began the season within reach of a record-breaking 12th test win at the helm, and with an expectation that he would score prolifically on the early tour of Zimbabwe.

The record win duly arrived, but Fleming's form has still not been sighted, and each day the New Zealand skipper has seemed a shade grumpier, a little more confused, and a touch more withdrawn.

So far, he has scored 129 ODI runs at 14.33 and a mere 32 test runs at 10.66, leaving him with the worst record of all the specialist batsmen on tour.

The 27-year-old has fallen to all manner of dismissals, being strangled down the leg side a couple of times, caught behind on others, and just when it seemed he might be coming right, has suffered the misfortune of a run-out or some other terminal happening.

That his place in the side continues to be safe reflects his past record as a batsman of true class, not to mention the dearth of potential replacments if the selectors were to get fidgety.

What must be a concern to everyone involved in the national side, however, is not so much Fleming's struggles as a batsman, but his gradual disintegration as a captain.

Whether the frustration of his lean trot is affecting his decision-making is anyone's guess, but so far on this African tour his leadership has been a huge disappointment, and his treatment of offspinner Paul Wiseman has verged on the criminal.

Not only is he one of the tour selectors who has apparently blocked Wiseman's recent progress, he has also been reluctant to bowl him even when he has been picked.

Fleming, who has not exactly shown a deep understanding of spin bowling during his reign, was forced to use Wiseman after bowling Daniel Vettori into the ground during the first test at Bulawayo.

But since emerging from that test with his second five-wicket bag and the man-of-the-match award, the Otago slow bowler has been consistently treated as a last-resort by his skipper in what has become a baffling display of indifference.

The most recent occasion concerned the second ODI against South Africa at Benoni, when Fleming - having had two spinners included in the New Zealand line-up - used them far too late in the piece to have any effect.

In what has become a predictable frustration, the Kiwi skipper instead opted to bowl his Canterbury team-mates Nathan Astle and Craig McMillan first, introducing his slow bowlers only after much damage had been wreaked, and the opposition batsmen were thoroughly on top.

With the test series against South Africa looming, one imagines that no one will be hoping Fleming rediscovers his form more than Fleming himself.

With the possible exception of Paul Wiseman.