A chance to realise Bracewell's dream

John Bracewell's New Zealand enter the most pivotal phase of project 2007 when they meet South Africa in the first of five one-dayers starting on Sunday. Since Bracewell took over the reins of New Zealand in 2003 he has made no secret of the fact that his goal was to develop a side capable of winning the World Cup in the West Indies. His focus has remained undeterred, even when it appeared Test results were suffering as a consequence - six wins, two each against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, offset by nine losses and four draws.

Contrast those rather miserable statistics with his 23-10 win-loss record in one-day cricket (two no results), including two tri-series victories, and you can see where Bracewell's strength lies. As he showed at Gloucestershire, he builds good one-day units.

He'll have plenty of opportunity to work those strengths this southern hemisphere summer. New Zealand's Test programme is positively anaemic, with just a three-match home series against West Indies interrupting a steady diet of ODIs.

But it is not Bracewell's team-building strength, but his chopping down of a legend that has caught the eye. While New Zealand will toil against the likes of Jacques Kallis, Graeme Smith and Shaun Pollock, the one player the South Africans truly fear will be playing club cricket on a variety of suburban parks in Christchurch, trying to prove he still has the hunger to play for New Zealand through to 2007.

There has been some nonsense written and spoken since, particularly that this is somehow new selector Glenn Turner's final twist of the knife in a bitter relationship that deteriorated when he was Black Caps coach and Chris Cairns was a wilful, and sometimes unwilling, star. If that was the case then what was Cairns's one-time team-mate and friend Dion Nash doing at the selection meeting? Surely he would have been a counterweight in any argument over Cairns's merits.

The fact was Bracewell flagged this concern about Cairns's lack of recent match practice some months ago. He turned up at Zimbabwe and was a self-confessed "liability". Bracewell acted and it is now up to Cairns to prove whether this particular story has a World Cup epilogue or not.

In South Africa Bracewell will turn to Jacob Oram, another allrounder, albeit one who is undergoing his first career slump. He has gone 15 ODI innings without posting a 50 and looked laboured at the bowling crease on the recent tour of Zimbabwe, despite taking four wickets in the final against India. He will need to step up in the absence of Cairns.

Stephen Fleming and Craig McMillan have both scored centuries against South Africa A in warm-up matches but there will be concern over the continued struggles of Hamish Marshall. He has failed to pass 30 in his past six innings and failed to reach double figures in his last four. Perhaps, as reflected by his unflattering domestic record, Marshall appears hungrier for runs against the really good attacks. So South Africa away, where he made the unlikeliest of Test debuts close to five years ago, should provide the challenge he thrives on.

His twin brother James, who has been in good form on the recent A tour to Sri Lanka, is another player with plenty to prove at the top level. There are doubts about whether his propensity to try and steer everything through gully will work against international new ball attacks. New Zealand know they can win ODIs at home. They are even starting to believe it can beat most teams away (except Australia). A series victory in South Africa might just start having them believe Bracewell's 2007 goal is more than fantasy.