Mark Richardson: Changes are needed to halt embarrassing slide

So what happens now? Plainly improvement is required, and change too. The past two ODI series have been embarrassing for our team.

They've been comprehensively beaten by Bangladesh and now an under-strength Indian outfit. Their goodwill with the New Zealand public must be at an all-time low but, more disturbingly, they are taking from New Zealand Cricket but giving nothing back in return for the game in this country.

I hope they care and I hope all concerned care enough to make the changes required. There are no easy answers here, just hard work and intelligent decision-making.

Change from the playing personnel must come from two distinct groups. The first must come from our so-called match-winning, world-class players. I'm sick of hearing about these world-class cricketers in our team.

World-class players win matches through world-class performances but do it more than occasionally. Two of them are Brendon McCullum and Ross Taylor. Yes, they are capable and occasionally do perform world-class deeds but far too infrequently to be labelled world class.

Somehow these two players who are crucial to our success must find a way to become more consistent. That alone is a skill and they are both deficient in that area.

They need to isolate the reasons for their lack of regular performance worthy of their clear potential and find the time to make the necessary changes.

Perhaps that may mean turning down certain playing opportunities in their hectic schedules in favour of quality practice time. Making changes is hard when you travel from game to game, tournament to tournament.

Before they do this, they probably have to want to make the improvements their country requires from them. As professional cricketers playing well enough to make a good living, they probably don't need to change but, as New Zealand representatives, they must.

McCullum and Taylor could win a World Cup final for New Zealand but they will need to get us there first as well through regular contribution throughout the tournament.

The other group is the one that James Franklin is the pin-up boy for right now and the group that has been non-existent for most of the past decade. This is the group of players who have been in the team prior, failed, been dropped but come back better than before.

Finally Franklin is starting to perform in the batting role he has shown potential in. He has been a stand-out at times for Wellington but failed to make the step up. He has now and must continue to do so because he is the ideal man for the No 6 role.

Throw Oram in the mix there too and all of a sudden you have some middle-order depth you can trust.

There will most probably be changes to the team over the next few months and those with form at provincial level will be same old suspects.

Kane Williamson was the only 'fresh meat' saying "pick me" in the recent past but now he finds himself in the same boat as many that went before - but who have failed to return for extended periods as better players.