David Leggat: Young hopefuls meet old enemy

A cricket collision between New Zealand and Australia is usually worth a look, certainly from this side of the Tasman.

At times - okay, quite often - you get the feeling that it's not viewed with quite the same seriousness across the Tasman as it is here. They have bigger fish on their plate these days, with another Ashes joust coming up, and South Africa and India seemingly permanently on their horizon.

But for all that, Australia tend not to enjoy getting their pants pulled down by their junior (in their eyes) neighbours, so be quite sure the same philosophy will apply when the teams meet in the quarter-finals of the under-19 world championship at Rangiora, half an hour north of Christchurch, tomorrow.

The tournament has made few ripples so far, because it's largely been a case of the eight heavyweights easing past the likes of Hong Kong and Papua New Guinea.

It will change over the weekend. India play Pakistan, for example. Expect that contest to have a bit of sting to it.

Today two New Zealand squads are expected to be named for limited-over contests against Bangladesh next month.

There is a solitary Twenty20 international in Hamilton on February 3, followed by three ODIs and the brief visit will end with a test, also at Seddon Park.

And in another sign of the changing priorities in the world of cricket, the shortest of those five games might attract the closest scrutiny from the national selectors.

Australia arrive later in the month, and kick off with two more Twenty20 clashes, in Wellington and Christchurch.

And that's the sum total of New Zealand's remaining preparation for the world Twenty20 championship in the Caribbean, starting on April 30.

It's all about timing. Tests matter; so too do ODIs, although increasingly less. But at this moment, it is the three-hour game which holds centre stage. Early next year, it will be the 50-over game, as the sport prepares for another world championship, this time the version that is 35 years old.

And still, there's no sign of a world event for the game which is 133 years old. Various important cricketing minds have tried and so far failed to devise a system which can produce a suitable, universally accepted method of finding a world test champion.

Back to Twenty20, as most cricketing conversations tend to go at the moment.

New Zealand are to name a 12 for the Bangladesh match. What price on Lou Vincent (his run out without facing a ball against Northern Districts yesterday notwithstanding)?

He has brought a fresh vibrancy to the domestic game and got big runs rapidly. His return began as a short-term stop while on a break back in New Zealand with his family from England. Then it got extended to run until the end of the domestic season at the end of March.

The absence of Jesse Ryder, with the aggravating of the debilitating pelvic injury which has sidelined him since September, opens a hole in all three versions of the game for the next couple of months.

That in turn means a chance for the selectors to look at a variety of options.

Expect an eyebrow-raiser or two when the squads are named, as the selectors look to leave no option unexplored.