Cricket: Kirsten doesn't want to buy into war of words

South Africa cricket coach Gary Kirsten. Photo / Getty Images

South African cricket coach Gary Kirsten is happy to let New Zealand do the on-field talking for the rest of their tour here and insists sledging isn't part of his side's game plan.

The Twenty20 series between the teams was punctuated by plenty of chirping on the pitch and even though Tim Southee must have been close to getting a sore neck from watching balls disappear for six in Hamilton last Sunday he still felt the need to deliver a notable serve to Proteas' opener Richard Levi.

Considering Levi had just smoked the fastest international Twenty20 century and had belted 12 of his world-record 13 sixes, it seemed pretty ill-timed.

But on the eve of the first one-day international, to be played in Wellington tomorrow, Kirsten said if New Zealand wanted to continue with it then he would let them go.

"Our focus here has been on to play cricket and to play as aggressive as we can, but to get our processes right," Kirsten said.

"It's not necessarily about the talking and there's a lot made of it, and really the team that's been talking the most is the New Zealanders. So it's important for us to make sure that we stay in our space and just concentrate on our processes, we don't want to get in to verbal battles, we're not interested. That's not what the game's about. If New Zealand want to use that as a tool towards that, it's our responsibility to manage it. So we certainly don't talk about it in our team meeting or team strategies. It's not part of how we want to play the game."

There is plenty of feeling between the sides given the close nature of the Twenty20 contests and the way New Zealand bundled South Africa out of the one-day World Cup at the quarter-final stage last year.

With three one-dayers and tests still to be played between the sides, the next month promises to provide plenty of highlights although Kirsten said sledging wouldn't be on the agenda of his team talks.

"It's not something we give any thought to. It's not part of our strategy at all. We came here to play cricket and win games of cricket and do it in the right way as much as possible - how we think we can win games. If New Zealand have strategies in terms of how they think they can beat us then that's their business."

South African skipper AB de Villiers didn't have a problem with what had gone on during the Twenty20 series and didn't believe the volume of chatter was an issue. "No. Not at all," the wicketkeeper-batsman said.

New Zealand coach John Wright didn't think the level of on-field banter was of a concern.

"I'm not aware of Gary's comments. As far as I can ascertain there's been a really good spirit between the sides. We've always thought that they were tough opponents, we've tried to match that. But as far as I'm aware there's good relations off the field and I don't think it's going to get out of control. But they're both teams that enjoy playing each other, so I'm unaware of Gary's annoyance in that area."

On the personnel front, South Africa welcome back big names Graeme Smith, Jacques Kallis and Dale Steyn to their one-day unit, while Faf du Plessis is also in the mix.

New Zealand have brought in Andy McKay and Tarun Nethula to bolster their ranks from the Twenty20 squad, and Wright confirmed Jesse Ryder would likely bat at No 5 behind openers Rob Nicol and Martin Guptill, stand-in skipper Brendon McCullum and No 4 Kane Williamson.

Tomorrow's game starts at 2pm.