The Black Cap XI - today, tomorrow and three years time.

Victory in Australia is great but unfortunately it probably didn't answer any of the questions we have about our top XI, oddly enough it probably threw up a few more.

We did learn a couple of things though that we can bank for the years ahead.

1) Between Doug Bracewell, Tim Southee and Trent Boult we have quick bowlers that can win us test matches for the next six or seven years. Behind them sit a group including Neil Wagner (come April), Hamish Bennett and Adam Milne. That group can win us test matches.

2) Chris Martin can still lead this attack. Martin was outstanding this whole series, making Phil Hughes his bunny was memorable but I could make Phil Hughes my bunny by bowling underarm if I was taking the ball across him. The way he lead a group of youngsters and kept showing up was testament to what experience and heart can achieve. Sure he may only have a year or two left (terrorising A Strauss and A Cook next summer in NZ might be a nice finish to the careeer) but in that time the group of bowlers I discussed in point 1 will learn a lot from Tommy!

3) Dean Brownlie is a middle order rock that you can build a batting line-up around.

There are also things we already knew

1) Ross Taylor is world class.

But what are the questions?

1) Is Kane Williamson a #3.... yet? Kane Williamson will be a world-class cricketer and will earn that reputation as a #3 but I am not convinced he is there yet. The best #3 of my lifetime is Ponting (well maybe Dravid but it being Ponting suits my argument) spent the early years of his career at 6 where he learned how to be a test batsman. Everyone knew he would always be a 3 but they gave him time to grow into it and look at the results! Should that be what they do with Kane? I guess it depends if you have another batsman to put there which maybe we do in Dean Brownlie.

2) Is Reece Young international quality? People who follow/watch first class cricket closely say that Young is the best keeper batsman in the country by a distance. Unfortunately that hasn't translated into quality on the test stage. Runs in Hobart were hard to come by, absolutely but players that are supposedly not as good managed to graft through it and provide support to the guy at the other end. Young wasn't able to. His contributions in Brisbane with the bat were poor. I am not a wicketkeeping expert so can't comment on that really, obviously he dropped Clarke in Brisbane with a ball that swung back late so was a tough chance but you would still want your keeper to take those in a test match. The difficulty is though, do we have anyone better to take his spot? Kruger Van Wyk isn't available yet, Derek De Boorder is running up some good numbers with the bat but do you pick the guy to debut against the best pace-attack in the world right now in South Africa? Tough call. Very very tough call. My opinion is that I would give Young the Zimbo test, let him find some confidence and hope he takes that into the South African series. My off-season if I was Wright/Buchanan would be spent turning BJ Waitling from a part-time keeper to a test quality one because then the problem is solved.
- Brendon McCullum does not come into this equation because I believe the guy when he says his body will not let him keep in the long form.

3) What role does Daniel Vettori play in this team? Is he a bowler that bats? A batsman that bowls? I think these days he is probably the latter. In my team I would pick him to bat at 6 and expect runs from him while knowing that he is good for 30/40 overs a test match but is unlikely to rip through an international top-order anymore (lower orders are a different matter for the rabbit hunter though!) Having him as this means we can play four quicks or three and another spinner in the right conditions. Don't ask me who the other spinner is though because that is for a completely different conversation. If Vettori bats 6 it probably means no place for Jesse Ryder at the moment (unthinkable 12 months ago) but if Ryder gets back to a place where he can bowl 10-15 overs a day then you can pick him and have Vettori batting at 6/7 with the keeper and 3 quicks behind him.

I do genuinely think the future is bright for the Black Caps, this is a talented generation of cricketers we have coming through and who are maturing into good international cricketers at the moment. Most pleasing though is not that we have a good 11 but that we probably have a group behind these guys who are not far off or who are international standard and can push for a spot over the next five or so years.

So here is my talent pool, I would pick an 11 but I can't honestly make up my own mind on how I would fit everyone into a fully fit lineup.

Top Order group
McCullum, Guptill, Flynn, Waitling, Nicol, Williamson
Middle Order group
Taylor, Ryder, Brownlie, Vettori, Williamson, Flynn, Franklin, Broom
Keepers
Young, Van Wyk, De Boorder
Spinners
Vettori, Astle, Patel (at a push)
Quicks
Bracewell, Southee, Mills, Bennett, Milne, Wagner

We won something.... else!

So we were always going to win a Rugby World Cup, however long it took the odds were on the fact that we would probably do it.

Winning a cricket test in Australia though, I wasn't entirely confident that would ever happen in my lifetime. In fact winning a cricket test against Australia fullstop was always going to be difficult. On Monday however, we did it. Did anything suggest it was likely to happen? No. Did people give us a chance? No. Was it fucking mean? Yup!

I watched the last 30 minutes in a round about kind of way, after remembering that parking in an undercover carpark doesn't do good things for radio reception I set off in a mad-dash around an Auckland shopping mall to find a television. Luckily, I found a pub and enjoyed this historic moment in NZ sport with a group of people who seeminlgy have nothing better to do than drink on a Monday afternoon at 4 o'clock. There isn't a sport that I follow which can take you on the ride that test cricket can and this was certainly one of those test matches.

Many of my favourite sporting moments of the past five or six years come from watching great test matches; various Ashes tests stretching back to 05, a couple of Aussie v Africa tests and one or two of the Aus v India clashes. Unfortunately for NZ cricket fans we don't play enough test matches nor are we good enough at them to get close to good teams. This time though, we got close to a good* team and boy was it wonderful to watch, torture for sure but sporting theatre at its very best.

It's such a great feeling watching a team that you have invested so much mental energy in over the years at last repay some of that faith. The Black Caps are a tough team to follow, anyone who does it knows that but we all do it because we know that behind the inconsistency and the frustration is a really good cricket side. To win a test match you have to be better than the other team across all three disciplines of the game, in Hobart we were that. It means so much to us because we know they can be better than the good* teams, it is just that they have to show it more often.

Maybe this is the beginning of something, not a golden era but certainly an era where we have a good cricket side that can compete with the best teams in the world at home and abroad. Here's hoping, because to watch test cricket is great, to watch great test cricket is amazing and to watch great test cricket that your teams ends up winning is one of the best feelings I have ever expereinced.

good* - note: this Australian team are not a very good cricket team but it is still Australia and they are still a team of dead set fuckwits!