Paul Lewis: Great expectations burden

The hype surrounding Corey Anderson (left) and Adam Milne has ramped up hugely this month. Photo / Getty Images

There are two cricketers facing huge challenges right now - Adam Milne and Corey Anderson. The first has been greeted as a fast bowling messiah while he is still, relatively speaking, in nappies; the second has a world record which could prove difficult to live up to.

On the whole, their emergence and that of legspinner Ish Sodhi is a positive for the Black Caps. They are not only young up-and-comers, they are exponents of arts sorely needed in New Zealand cricket.

Legspin can be a potent weapon. Milne is a 150km/h bowler, a speed which can hurry and worry even top batsmen; Anderson, scorer of the fastest ODI century ever, solves the problem six and seven batting positions. If the Black Caps can harness their relative strengths, they could have a highly interesting unit going into the next World Cup and, even more intriguingly, in tests.

But this is the Black Caps, the team which so often flatters to deceive and which has made an art form of disappointment; a team which builds themselves and their fans up to a peak from which all of cricket's kingdom is visible, just before they are plummeted back to base camp in an avalanche of inconsistency.

This ability to be frustratingly insubstantial after looking substantial indeed is a Black Caps tradition. Remarkably, even though some cricket-haters and those ignorant about the game blether on about why so much space is given to the sport in the media, the game retains a viable fan base. The critics carp on about the fact that no one goes to first-class games and some test matches are populated so sparsely that you could be forgiven for thinking you'd wandered into the Chernobyl Recreation Ground.

People in this country still watch cricket. They may not go to the park to see tests; the pace of modern life and varied things to do is one reason - so is an unwillingness to get too interested in the Black Caps; the once-bitten know that disappointment and frustration are strapped more firmly to the team than their batting pads.

But they still watch, listen and read. Sky doesn't televise the tests as a public service. There is still a large cricket diaspora interested to see what happens - but they don't necessarily invest the time nor the trust required to go to the venue.

So over-egged expectation can make it all the more embarrassing when finds like Anderson and Milne turn up. Milne went for 27 runs off two overs in Queenstown as the weakened West Indies briefly found their batting muse. Not a word was heard about his promise then. But four overs relatively cheaply at that 150km/h pace in a couple of T20s (cricket's most forgettable format) - and suddenly we have the new Hadlee.

We in the news media are partly to blame for this. Restraint does not always squeeze our hands in gentle warning. It was possible to cringe when Indian captain MS Dhoni, fresh off the plane, was asked what he knew of Milne.

I mean, really. This is MS Dhoni, the most successful Indian captain of all time; he is regarded as perhaps the best finisher in one day cricket; a truly punishing batsman.

His helicopter shot (the bat flails around his head like a helicopter blade after he has struck the ball, usually for six) has accounted for some of the world's finest fast bowlers and certainly many with many more international wickets than Milne. In 127 test innings, Dhoni has hit 75 sixes in his 4300 test runs. He has hit 166 sixes in 209 ODI innings (he has an average of just under 53). Compare that with, oh, a big-hitting wicketkeeping equivalent in Australia's Adam Gilchrist.

He hit 100 test sixes from 137 innings (the most by any cricketer) and, in ODIs, 149 sixes in 247 innings. Another powerful Aussie, Matthew Hayden, hit 82 sixes from 184 test innings and 87 sixes from 155 ODI knocks.

Dhoni will be about as frightened of Adam Milne as another Milne, AA Milne, made Winnie The Pooh afraid of honey. India's batsmen will be looking forward to meeting him in the middle - yet another reason for preparing a nasty green-top for them.

I used to play for the Howick-Pakuranga club when fast bowler Sean Tracy (of Auckland, Canterbury and Gloucestershire plus brief appearances for New Zealand in England in 1983) was coming up. If you were smart, you got to practice early, before Tracy arrived. He was quick - if not 150km/h, then close to it. If he hit you, it was possible later to detect the seam of the ball in your skin; a temporary tattoo trumpeting your lack of ability.

But, for batsmen far more talented than we club strugglers, speed alone was not enough. Moving the ball was, and is, paramount. Tracy, perhaps, didn't get enough swing or movement off the pitch to worry topliners consistently. He had some good results on tour - and he was trying to break into a team which had bowlers such as Hadlee, Chatfield, Cairns, Snedden and Bracewell - but his time at the top was brief. Milne does not yet seem to move the ball convincingly but, at 21, has plenty of time to learn to do so.

As for Anderson, that glorious world record ton could be a burden. It was performed at a venue with short boundaries; it came in a rain-shortened 21-over match; Anderson himself allowed that he would not have played the way he did had it been a 50-over match.

His innings was one of which all batsmen dream - the knock where everything comes off the middle; where the cricket gods invest him with the ability to hit cleanly and irresistibly. But now, in every innings he plays, that world record will walk to the pitch with him. The bowling team will regard him with renewed interest, even hunger. No one had heard of Corey Anderson. Now everyone has. His is a scalp for which opposition knives will be itching.

Anderson seems an intelligent man of good temperament so he may well clear this unintended hurdle. At least it will be fascinating watching him try to do so; Milne too. I still don't quite agree with pitching a 21-year-old quick into the punishing environment of limited overs cricket (rather than tests) but coach Mike Hesson and the selectors have done well with their talent identification and management thus far.

Now it's matter of doing what the Black Caps have so often struggled to do - take it up a notch and keep it there.