Mark Richardson: Testing times are ahead

The domestic one-day international season is now over. New Zealand played 12 ODIs, starting in December with the Chappell/Hadlee series, Sri Lanka mid-season and finishing last night against the West Indies. It was a successful year which saw disaster turned to world-record triumph against Australia, Sri Lanka given a hurry up, the West Indies embarrassed, and New Zealand climb the ICC world rankings again.

All the talk has been about the World Cup and the need to develop the team towards success in that prestigious ODI tournament. Fair enough, and I for one reckon the current crop of players are, on paper, our best ever chance of lifting the cup.

However, it would be foolish for New Zealand Cricket to put all its eggs in the one-day basket. I do not believe, in light of the Indian summer of discontent, New Zealand's worth to the potential pirates of world cricket (India) will be judged on its success in the shortened form alone. Test cricket success must not be underestimated.

Limited overs cricket will remain the rice, potatoes and three veg of a balanced cricket diet but success in the test arena will signify a quality of the cut of meat. Sure, you can live off the veges and spuds but without a good cut of beef on the plate, it's all a bit unappealing. India has made clear it wants the best meat available.

India's initial and most significant attempt to hijack the ICC's gravy train (the future tours programme) came when they stated they wanted to play test matches against Australia every year and England every other. If this goes ahead - and a billion cricket-mad, colossal revenue-generating Indians who still love the pure form of the game (test cricket) make this quite likely - then New Zealand must simply become prime beef.

The problem for our nation is that, even when we are strong, we are still not overly appealing. If the middle of the ICC test table looked in ascending order like New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, it would most likely be us that went down if the test world went to a top-bottom split.

A bottom-tier status could kill the game in this country. Regardless, we will get our share of one-day games against the big boys but for real revenue generation, we must get to host the superpowers in full tour scenarios.

New Zealand cricket is approaching a real crossroads. A test series against the questionable West Indies starts this week, followed by a test tour against South Africa and the first step down the right road starts with success against these two foes.

-HERALD ON SUNDAY