KEY POINTS:
It could be a pub quiz question: How many of the Black Caps' quick bowlers are under 30? More importantly, who is going to replace them?
The answer to the first is one - 27-year-old Mark Gillespie is the only member of the Black Caps' seam bowling brethren yet to blow out the candles on his 30th birthday cake.
The answer to the second is unknown but, with the end of the decade almost certainly signalling the end of most of those current careers, it is a far more important enquiry.
Shane Bond (32), Chris Martin (32), Michael Mason (33) and Iain O'Brien (31) are all in their fourth decade, leading to the possibility that the end of the decade may also see the culmination of international careers.
Those not in South Africa include Kyle Mills, fast closing on 29, and James Franklin (26).
However, the search for reinforcements - while not yet conclusive - is well under way with a group of talented youngsters already being exposed to the rigours of domestic and international competition.
One with much hope resting on his broad shoulders is Canterbury paceman Hamish Bennett - a New Zealand A representative over the past two seasons, yet still over 100 days away from toasting his 21st year.
Now built more like a reconditioned All Black forward than a fast bowler, Bennett's size and action has more than a passing resemblance to Englishman Steve Harmison - something not lost on Bennett's former age-grade team-mates who often referred to him as 'Harmy'.
He can't be spoken of in those terms yet - Bennett has taken only 29 first-class scalps at 51.51 - New Zealand pace bowling coach Vaughn Johnson sees past those figures in his assessment of a bowler capable of extracting lift from even the most benign of pitches, something Black Caps' attacks have lacked in the past.
"He's got that natural ability to bowl a heavy ball. I don't know what his speed ball is at but he bowls at a pace that troubles most players and he gets good bounce off a length," says Johnson.
"He's a big shoulder bowler but is working on a couple of technical things at the moment to get him a little bit more natural without taking away from what he's got."
Another eliciting international comparison is Tim Southee, an 18-year-old all-round talent from Whangarei who casts the mind back to another player who made his first-class debut for Northern Districts as a teenager before making it big on the world stage.
While Southee does not exhibit the brashness that Chris Cairns did at such a young age, and isunlikely to match his Cairns' test debut age of 19, he does carry a similar knack for unsettling even the most technically composed of batsmen.
"He's perhaps not quite as quick as Hamish as far as natural quickness is concerned, but he's got the ability to swing the ball quite late and that's also a huge part of getting guys out," says Johnson of Southee.
Proof of that lies in his 16 first-class wickets at 33.43, including 4-113 off 45 overs in last year's State Championship final against Northern Districts.
Both bowlers have attended the great Australian quick Dennis Lillee's pace bowling academy in Chennai over the past two years and were also part of a New Zealand A tour to Darwin in July that featured another three talents waiting in the wings.
Southee's New Zealand U19 team-mates Greg Morgan, Trent Boult and Corey Anderson all toured as part of an initiative that Johnson rates as a booming success.
"It was a learning curve for them and getting a taste of what international cricket is all about. I think it was a smart move to take the next four or five guys that have been identified and give them a bit of a taste of what's required at international level, and I think they benefited hugely."
South African-born Morgan bowls at a deceptively sharp pace and took a hat-trick against India under-19 last summer. Left-armer Boult was crowned as the National Bank's inaugural secondary school fast bowling champion with a 129kph delivery, and Anderson's first-class debut in March came four months past his 16th birthday.
However, there have been plenty of "the next great hopes" before, like Ian Butler - seen as a possible partner to Bond until persistent back injuries saw him work towards rebirth as a batsman - and Canterbury quick Richard Sherlock, who has been part of New Zealand A but who's been inhibited by similar problems to Butler.
Johnson insists the same won't be the case for the current youngsters.
"The way the medical staff from New Zealand Cricket are identifying the young talent now and giving them individualised programmes, I don't think there's any chance of them being overbowled - put it that way."
Bennett and Southee are likely to continue their rapid development through the coming domestic season, while Southee looks certain to join Anderson, Boult and Morgan for February's under-19 World Cup in Malaysia under the guidance of coach Dipak Patel and former Canterbury seamer Michael Sharpe.
