It's going to be tough for the Kiwi's

Russel Arnold

Our first match is against New Zealand and I have to say that I don't envy them. They flew to Sri Lanka on the weekend, straight out of what's reputed to have been one of their coldest winters for 30 years, and three days later they will play their first game in the wet heat of Colombo.

It's going to be a tough ask and acclimatization is not their only problem. No matter the quality of the indoor training facilities there is no substitute to match practice - the indoor environment is completely different. Moreover, pitch conditions in Sri Lanka are clearly different to those that they are used to and they will play a big part. They may need time to adapt, but there is precious little of that remaining.

They are not grumbling though. I read Vettori's CricInfo column and he appears to have the right attitude, claiming that it comes with the job of an international cricketer nowadays, when we play so much international cricket. Such an attitude is fairly typical of the Kiwi's, who seem a determined and hard working bunch.

We have played them quite a lot recently in one-day cricket. We had a five-match series in New Zealand before the England tour, which we won easily, and then won one game apiece in the ARY Gold Cup back in April.

They will be stronger now that they have the services of Stephen Fleming, Nathan Astle, Dion Nash, and Daniel Vettori again. In fact, when you look at the side, you notice that they have plenty of match winners even without Chris Cairns. We need to be careful, even in our own backyard.

The batting looks the strongest part of their game, though they are usually excellent fielders too. Fleming and McMillan are the two players who can bat throughout the innings and they are real danger men, especially McMillan, who can really turn it on.

We also have a lot of respect for Matthew Sinclair, whilst Nathan Astle is a player who can turn around a game at any moment, because of the speed with which he scores. With Dion Nash and the industrious Chris Harris coming in down the order it's an impressive line-up.

Their bowling attack, however, is steady without being frightening. Daniel Vettori is the major threat, even if he is just returning from injury. An intelligent bowler, who works on his angles and varies his pace, he is very accurate and makes life difficult for the batsmen. He does the basics well and we will have to be on guard against him.

Chris Harris can be a nagging bowler and we underestimate him at our peril, especially in Sri Lankan conditions, which should suit his gentle cutters. Dion Nash is back, but I believe that he is only operating at 80% at the moment. We will have to wait and see how he goes.

There has been much talk about the wickets for this Coca Cola Cup. It is true that we are trying to quicken up the wickets in Sri Lanka, which will be good for our cricket, but realistically it is going to take time. You cannot create a faster surface and maintain a balance between bat and ball overnight. Sure, you can leave some extra grass on, but that will just lead to the ball jagging around.

Although we have been practicing on greener wickets, much to the delight of the seamers who have seen the ball darting all over the place, I don't expect that pitches to play too differently. Essentially, the pitches should favour the spinners and at the Sinhalese Sports Club the faster bowlers can look forward to a bit of life in the first hour.

I thought it was interesting to read the comments of the New Zealand coach about the pitches for this tournament. They have heard that slower pitches may be prepared for our New Zealand games and he has cried foul. I'm not sure whether that's the case, but even if is, I don't think the Kiwis can complain.

When we played in New Zealand in February the pitches were real green tops. Some had so much grass that even Murali struggled to spin the ball. I very much doubt that Australia's trio of fast bowlers would have been given half that amount of grass!

Whatever the surface you have to play well and it's strange that in our last two encounters, we were more successful in New Zealand than we were in Sharjah, where conditions should really have favoured us. We are therefore taking nothing for granted.