Cricket: Priority to get Doull right

Getting Simon Doull's head around the limited-overs game is top priority for New Zealand cricket, according to the national convener of selectors, Ross Dykes.

Doull has scythed through the best test batting line-ups in the world, but when the same players come out dressed in their pyjamas, he falls to pieces.

The New Zealand swing bowler has captured 96 wickets in 29 tests, but in 40 one-day internationals he has taken 34 wickets at 5.01 runs an over.

Had Doull been primed for the World Cup, New Zealand might not have encountered the problems they did in the key games against South Africa and Pakistan.

While left-armer Geoff Allott did a magnificent job as strike bowler in the Cup, New Zealand lacked bowling firepower.

In the Super Six, South Africans Gary Kirsten and Herschelle Gibbs put on 176 for the first wicket and Pakistan's Saeed Anwar and Wajahatullah Wasti bettered that with 194.

Dykes acknowledged that more needed to be made of Doull.

"Everybody nowadays is playing both forms of the game, so it is something we have to address," he said. "We have to be mindful we don't take away the strength of Simon Doull but he has to be made aware what is required and look to overcome a problem, if indeed he has one."

The problem is exacerbated by Chris Cairns operating at medium pace. Dykes said: "Cairnsey's greatest asset is his ability to take wickets and you might have thought he could have been more aggressive, but I'm reluctant to comment from 12,000 miles away."

Dykes hinted that the days of the "dibbly-dobblers" dominating in the middle of the innings were numbered.

With Gavin Larsen in the twilight of his career, New Zealand will need to review their one-day philosophy.

"We have had a very successful method of containment over about eight-nine years but we have to sit down shortly and decide how we want to play the game in the next six years," Dykes said.

It was evident that teams were taking a much more aggressive approach to the game. They were no longer risking all in the first overs. Instead they were prepared to accumulate runs at the start then go all out with wickets in hand in the closing overs.

Dykes defended the make-up of the 15-man squad, with four bowlers sitting on the balcony for a month, while there was no ready replacement for out-of-form batsmen Nathan Astle and Craig McMillan.

"In the end we went for an extra bowler because history showed bowlers had been the greatest problem for us with injuries, and to be fair, the top-order batting options weren't exactly jumping out at us."

Dykes is prepared to accept some criticism of New Zealand's performance.

He said: "They didn't always perform to their potential, but on win-loss ratio we deserved to make the semis." - NZPA