KEY POINTS:
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - New Zealand pace bowler Mark Gillespie is to see a specialist about a neck injury and won't play in the Black Caps' World Cup warm-up cricket match against Bangladesh in Barbados tomorrow.
Gillespie's right arm was temporarily numbed after the Kiwis' day-long flight to the
West Indies, according to the skipper.
"Mark has paralysis of his right arm which is not a great thing when you're a right-arm bowler. But that'll be short term," Fleming told reporters before taking part in a fielding drill at the Kensington Oval this morning (NZ time).
The Kiwis will be aiming to find their feet on Caribbean soil when they take on Bangladesh tomorrow at the nearby 3Ws Stadium and Gillespie was expected to play.
"Getting used to the conditions is the key one," said Fleming, whose team will travel to St Lucia this weekend for their Group C matches against England, Canada and Kenya.
"It's our first taste of a West Indies pitch. If that's going to give us an indication of what the others are going to be like, then we've got to assess it well and make sure that while looking forward, we start getting combinations that we think will best fit the conditions."
The New Zealand team arrived in West Indies after a day-long flight riding high on confidence having achieved a historic one-day series win over world champions Australia last month.
Fleming's team handed Australia their first 10-wicket defeat in one-dayers before going on to record an emphatic 3-0 win.
But Fleming, who is his country's leading one-day run scorer with a tally of 7,654 from 269 matches, refused to get carried away by the achievement as his team looked to improve on four semi-final appearances in the competition.
"We felt we were doing some good things before that (the win against Australia), but that we needed to start winning," said the 33-year-old left hander.
"By doing that gave us a lot of confidence. We're also realistic that over here, things can really change. The World Cup is not necessarily about form going into the World Cup, it's about form during it.
The Black Caps had two net sessions on very good practice pitches at the Windward Cricket Ground and the Police Ground at Waymouth today, and fielding practice only at Kensington Oval.
Fleming said the pre-tournament games were important in giving both bowlers and batsmen a chance to get through a full quota of overs.
"This pre-tournament period is all based around quality -- quality of preparation, of practice and play.
"While it is good having confidence going into the tournament, it is the team that carries that form and confidence throughout the two months that will win," Fleming said.
The Black Caps open their World Cup campaign against England on March 16.
- REUTERS / NZPA
