Kiwis appear to be calling time on their love affair with beer, partly because of spiralling living costs.

It's the flags you see first. WOMAD, held annually at Taranaki's beautiful Brooklands Park, is littered with them.

If the Black Caps can set up a solid game plan against Muttiah Muralitharan tonight then they'll go a long way to beating Sri Lanka.

Thirty-five jobs may be up for the chop but affected staff are being consulted before any decisions, Niwa says.