Support them no matter what, your kidding yourself if you think 4.5m Kiwi's are gonna always compete with powers like India, Oz, SA, England etc. Especially when most of the sporting talent is roped into rugby. Enjoy it without serious expectations of winning and it was not that long ago the Black Caps were knocking over India easily at home much harder over there even England got clouted by India too. 

I'm in the same boat as you Barrie but have only been around half as long.
Its actually quite depressing. I watched the night before when Southee was ripping through there top order and had them 50 ood for 5, I was thinking holy crap we're actually going to have a first innings lead when we come out to bat again... next minute a 150 run partnership. Its been said before but we are lacking a quality spinner in the side. We need some one in the team who can actually turn the ball. I think this is a biggest problem at the moment. And because we have no spinners in NZ all of the emerging batsmen coming through the ranks have no idea how to play it when they get onto the international stage. How do we get a North Island and a South Island team in the Australian competition cos I think that is what needs to happen.... In return we'll let them field a couple of sides in the ITM cup. Win win For NZ cricket and Australian rugby.

I think Rosco's times up as Nz captain. Give McCullum a crack. Probally wont make a difference but something has to be done. Why wasnt Wattling playing in that test after his ODI form? Surely you want your most inform players on the field. Who's making these decisions?

Huge cricket fan here as well and just a sucker when it comes to submersing myself in the woe of the black caps.

My personal view is that Brendon McCullum should be captain. It would give him something else to be there for other than just trying to show off and hit 6s. He made an ass of himself when he was given the shot previously but maybe hes learned a little since then. You are right though, hes not an opener when it comes to test cricket. I thought he wanted to bat 4 but dont think Taylor likes him there....wouldnt matter though if he was captain.

Get Ryder back in there ASAP. He is the best bit of batting talent we have had in a long long time. No 5 for him.

Guptil is a class player just in bad form. Williamson could be decent in time but should be at 6 for now not at first drop. So Taylor therefore at 3. This then leaves the problem of finding another opener (welcome back Lou) and giving Flynn the bad news that there is no room at the inn.

Bit of a case of re-shuffling the deckchairs on the titanic but IMHO its a better way of lining up the batting if these guys are truely the best available in NZ.

There is still one thing missing though......a spine. This team has been lacking one for so long. How the hell do we sort that ****?

Thats why I reckon we should give him the captaincy.....how much worse can it be then what is happening now?

test cricket is not a matter of aggressiveness, its a matter of patience.
One of the greatest openers that I have seen didnt care so much about runs, he cared about time. To him 6 hours was a minimum. He use to say, the runs would come. Geoff Boycott.

Limited over is all about aggressiveness and McCullum is great at that  

JK wrote: Wasnt saying to give it to McCallum because hes agressive Barry, more so the added responsibility is likely to compose him a wee bit. could well work The problem with our guys is that I dont think they have the confidence in their team mates to play with patience and that they need to score quickly before they run of our support down the other end. too many one day shots I think. NZ still wins at limited over so its more the test that we have problems with

Even in the lost 20/20 series, we didnt do too bad but the rain stuffed us every time even without McCullum and Guptill.
Tests are where we need a different mind set and if these guys cant come to terms with it then maybe we need two different batting line ups

Barrie wrote: JK wrote: Wasnt saying to give it to McCallum because hes agressive Barry, more so the added responsibility is likely to compose him a wee bit. could well work The problem with our guys is that I dont think they have the confidence in their team mates to play with patience and that they need to score quickly before they run of our support down the other end. too many one day shots I think. NZ still wins at limited over so its more the test that we have problems with Even in the lost 20/20 series, we didnt do too bad but the rain stuffed us every time even without McCullum and Guptill. Tests are where we need a different mind set and if these guys cant come to terms with it then maybe we need two different batting line ups

What different batting line up tho? We've given so many guys a chance but they have all failed. With the exception of Ryder and Wattling this is the best we have. In all forms

The Black caps just need more practice against hard competition........... I hear the waiheke island womens over 80 first eleven is looking for a match!!

Just a question ... how long between drinks has it been for a Black Cr@ps win ?

oh...