KEY POINTS:
First things first: Stephen Fleming is not announcing his retirement when the second test is wrapped up against Bangladesh today.
Second, his sights are on the forthcoming England series, but he's not thinking beyond that.
And third, he was highly unimpressed with himself yesterday, squandering a first test
hundred at the Basin Reserve, and with it the chance to nudge his batting average up from 39 to the benchmark 40, by which fine test careers are judged.
The whispers went about yesterday afternoon that Fleming, 34, was about to pull the pin. But that got short shrift last night. "Unless it's come from [Glenn] Turner, [Sir Richard] Hadlee, [Dion] Nash or Braces [coach John Bracewell] then no," Fleming said, referring to the national selectors.
There is an assumption that Fleming will go on the tour to England in mid-year. That series finishes at Trent Bridge, where he has played the last three years for Nottinghamshire. That would offer the feeling of a satisfying rounding off to a fine career.
But Fleming is being careful not to peer too hard into the crystal ball.
"I'll get through to England [at home] and see how it goes," he said. "It's a test at a time, a week at a time. Finishing tomorrow is the key priority. We've still got some wickets to take. I've learned not to get too far ahead of myself."
Fleming will play the domestic Twenty20 series for Wellington, starting on Thursday and squeeze in some State Shield ODIs. It is hardly ideal preparation for three tests against England in March.
Yesterday Fleming, dropped at deep mid on when on 61, had a hundred for the taking, only to play an almost identical shot to be caught at deep mid wicket for 87.
"I planned to put that one into the Don Neely scoreboard, the next one into the scaffolding, then get a single for the 100. I play the left arm spinners [in this case Shakib Al Hasan] in the latter part of my career quite well. The decision was right, but my execution twice today was poor.
"I could have sat on it, played the percentages and got there. That's one of the regrets I have of my 43 fifties.
"There's a lot where I looked at the positive option, and got impatient. I want to get there and the anxiety of that makes me speed up."
But Fleming was unsure how much would be taken out of a series against a sub-standard Bangladesh touring side.
"It's good to be back in test mode. We've been so conditioned to one-dayers, talking, training and playing it that getting back to the rhythms of test cricket is quite important.
"We won't get carried away. We've still got a lot of issues."
Fleming insisted the skill level must improve if New Zealand are to push towards the top echelon of test nations. They are ranked seventh.
If he'd reached 136 yesterday, Fleming would have got his average to 40, and he knew it.
"I was looking further than 100, then go on and on."
He won't be for much longer and New Zealand's middle order will be the poorer for it when the former captain has gone.
