Cricket: Cairns, McMillan under microscope

3pm

JOHANNESBURG - The futures of Chris Cairns and Craig McMillan in both the New Zealand cricket test and one-day teams remain cloudy after chairman of selectors Sir Richard Hadlee labelled them as two big disappointments of the World Cup campaign today.

Hadlee departed for home today lamenting the dual batting collapses against Australia and India that finished a promising New Zealand campaign in its tracks.

"We really needed to get more from the senior players," Hadlee said.

"There were a lot of disappointments; McMillan particularly, hasn't delivered. Chris Cairns got 20s, 30s and one 50; we expected more from him.

"Stephen Fleming was the one batsman that stood up, and Nathan Astle to a degree, even though he had three ducks. But you can't afford to have key players not producing the runs in key games."

Cairns, in particular, despite a useful tournament average of 37.4, signed out of his last World Cup as a letdown when his team needed their proven matchwinner most.

His best score was 54 against the pop gun Zimbabwe attack on a featherbed pitch in Bloemfontein.

Having promised so much after a measured comeback from major knee surgery last year, the star allrounder summed up his tournament with two crucial batting lapses when well set against Australia and India.

Both times he flayed aerially through the offside on 16 and 20 to offer simple catches with New Zealand teetering, and there was little resistance afterwards.

More importantly he wasn't able to contribute with the ball as his body failed to respond, bowling just eight overs in the tournament.

He didn't bowl against Australia because of a shoulder problem and then yesterday he ricked his neck in warm-ups which ruled him out of a bowling role against the Indians.

Now 32, Cairns is only available for the one-day tri-series in Sri Lanka, also involving Pakistan, in early May before rejoining English county Nottinghamshire.

Whether his body holds up enough to ever grace the New Zealand test side is under question.

McMillan, after the worst few months of his largely successful career to date, will be even more under the microscope when the selectors sit down to pick their test and one-day sides for Sri Lanka in coming weeks.

He finished the World Cup by being caught at square leg off the second ball of the match yesterday.

An often vocal critic of McMillan who still averages just below 40 in the test arena, Hadlee remained unimpressed.

"You have a technical skills adviser (Australian Ashley Ross) on this tour to talk it through. Foot movement, decision making, going at the ball too early," Hadlee said.

"What we want him to do is tone it down ... it was very disappointing."

It appears McMillan's future will lie in the middle order in the one-day side after the opening experiment here, which will open the door for a reprieve for the freescoring Chris Nevin.

The selectors clearly had little faith in Mathew Sinclair to do the job here despite being a specialist opener, and Nevin's omission from the squad stood out.

"The opening position has been a problem as long as I've ever known ... and we were probably caught short," Hadlee said.

Hadlee said he would take some time to consider his future as a selector after he had chosen the squads of 14 for Sri Lanka and helped decide the 20 contracted players for next season.

- NZPA