Editorial: Cricketers' chance for redemption

In the world of professional sport, the opportunity for redemption is never far away. Players are rarely idle for long as one tour is supplanted by another. For all their complaints about this treadmill, there is at least the prospect of a win just round the corner. Certainly, the Black Caps can have no objections about the two tests against Sri Lanka, which start on Monday. The resumption of this tsunami-interrupted series offers them a remarkably early chance to retrieve a sizeable dollop of lost pride.

A similar opportunity has already been seized by Pakistan. Their downfall on tour in Australia was every bit as humiliating as that just suffered by the Black Caps. Yet the Pakistanis have bounced back to draw a test series with their biggest rival, India. New Zealand's task against a Sri Lankan side minus its spinning trump card, Muttiah Muralitharan, seems almost pedestrian in contrast - even if Daniel Vettori will not play in the first test.

The series will, most of all, provide a realistic assessment of New Zealand's international standing. It may even suggest that it would be wrong to get too downcast about the performance against the majestic Australians, who demonstrated once again why they are being compared with the great sides of cricket history.

The Black Caps, deprived by injuries of regulars such as Jacob Oram and Scott Styris, were never likely to be in a position to compete seriously against them. Unsurprisingly, the techniques of inexperienced players failed this sternest of examinations. It merely compounded matters when many of the most capped were similarly exposed.

The ignominy inflicted by the Australians has prompted much navel-gazing about the state of the game here. The step-up from first-class cricket to the test arena is widely seen as too great. Comparisons have been made with the first-class competition in Australia, which is professional, and from which most players move seamlessly into the international arena. But the Australian system is built around cricket's standing there as the national game. The money that accompanies such status is unavailable here.

Cricket's administrators must, therefore, seek to fortify the first-class game by other means. Most logically this would involve fewer but stronger teams in the domestic competition. Tackling that, however, would throw up all sorts of parochial concerns. The easier path to bridging the gap to test cricket is to place a greater emphasis on worthwhile fixtures and tours by New Zealand A and age-group sides.

It should also be recognised that the fortunes of all sporting sides ebb and flow. No Australian cricket team is ever weak, but the present squad will lose much of its power over the next few years when irreplaceable players - Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne and so on - retire. Just as South Africa have lost much of their venom with the departure of Allan Donald and the wilting of the likes of Lance Klusener.

The Black Caps now have the chance to make a strong statement; to confirm that the recent rout was all about the Australians' greatness, not their own weakness. Yesterday's wallies can become tomorrow's wizards. Another dismal series, however, and calls for significant change will sound more and more reasonable.