Not a lot to shout about

My lasting memory of 2006 will be who's-turn-is-it next - otherwise known as opening the batting for New Zealand in Test cricket. It is now over 20 years since Bruce Edgar gave it away, yet still we gag for a partnership of the quality he formed with John Wright...not that you would know it from the Test selections in 2006. On the contrary, a casual observer would think New Zealand had such riches at the top of the order it was akin to picking a new tie for another day at the office.

James Marshall and Lou Vincent were the incumbent openers prior to the first Test side of 2006 being chosen. They were replaced with Hamish Marshall and Jamie How for the West Indies series which was duly won 2-0. Never change a winning line up the adage goes. But not when John Bracewell is in charge. Onwards to South Africa and Peter Fulton replaced How first up, he then partnered Michael Papps when Marshall was injured before How returned in the place of Fulton for the last hurrah of the season.

Confused? Well so were they and, eventually, so was Bracewell. He finally conceded, in December, that the most important trait for a Test opener ideally needed to be, wait for it...an opener. The problem hasn't so much been a lack of openers: there are plenty who would have jumped at the chance, including Vincent whose omission from the tour of South Africa was never credibly explained. Rather it has been Bracewell's infatuation with trying players out in one-day cricket and his inability to then demarcate the Test side.

Fulton is the prime example. He got a chance in the one-dayers against Sri Lanka and the West Indies, substituted for Scott Styris in the Tests that followed and when Stryis was fit, Fulton became a Test opener. And, to finish the story, he's not anymore. Funnily enough, despite Australia's middle-order riches, I don't recall Damien Martyn or Steve Waugh opening the batting. Equally, don't expect Kevin Pietersen to either, unless Bracewell replaces the equally-under pressure Duncan Fletcher after the World Cup.

New man on the block
Peter Fulton made a strong case after being given the coveted No. 4 spot in the one-day side for much of the year. Ross Taylor, though, takes the prize after his unbeaten century at Napier against Sri Lanka a few days before New Year.

Taylor oozes class and confidence in his body language alone. Cricketing-wise, he now has five one-day caps and is already striking at a rate of 93.56. Domestically, he has promised a lot for a few seasons now but things really only fell into place during 2005-06, when he averaged just under 50 in first-class cricket and 59 in one-dayers.

There's no doubt Taylor can spank a cricket ball but there is one story that may never be proven or otherwise. Taylor is said to have hit a hapless bowler onto the roof of the R A Vance Stand at Wellington's Basin Reserve. Personally, I've never seen anyone get anywhere near it but Taylor is not your typical New Zealand cricketer.

Fading star
If New Zealand is to win the World Cup, chances are it will be on the back of a Nathan Astle hundred opening the innings. His 16 one-day hundreds stand far ahead of the next highest, Stephen Fleming with 6, and in February he topped the stats against the West Indies when he averaged 73 in five matches. Now 35, Astle no longer has age on his side and, possibly too, the drive to continue. In the 2006 English domestic season, he managed just three 50s and an average of 36 in eight first-class matches for Lancashire. His one-day form was markedly better, however.

Only a disastrous run of form would see Astle not make his 5th appearance at a World Cup and one senses it will be his swansong. The danger for Astle is not himself: his blazing 83 prior to Taylor's aforementioned ton was evidence enough. If there is a noose, it is being in a team where your spot could be someone else's tomorrow for no real reason. Astle has always been a quiet character, not one for the spotlight. Now though, he must lose that conservative Canterburyism and demand to go in first.

High point
Regrettably, there were none to speak of in the 2006 calendar year. It started with a sour hangover from the virtually-alcohol-free one-dayer against Sri Lanka in Queenstown that should have been a New Year's Eve party and ended with a pounding by the same opposition at Napier and the sketchiest of wins a few days later, again back at Queenstown. In between times, the West Indies were dealt with - not tricky when even a certain Brian Lara could only manage slightly more runs than innings (a grand total of 7 in four innings during the first two Tests). A 2-0 loss in the three-Test series in South Africa in May was followed in October when a decent effort to make the Champions Trophy semi-finals ended with a top-order batting malfunction against Australia. Finally, when it looked like there would be light at Christmas, New Zealand blew a 1-0 lead in the home Tests against Sri Lanka when they were hammered at the Basin Reserve.

Low point
Test cricket in New Zealand could almost be equated with Test cricket in Ireland: that we have it and they don't is almost neither here nor there. I was in Belfast for the ICC Trophy last July and I swear there is more interest in cricket in the supposed cricketing backwater than there is in Test cricket at home. At the very least they've worked out that you don't put on a game of cricket at Lansdowne Road. Watching the spectator-barren Jade Stadium on television during the Sri Lanka Test in December made the heart sink. The time to move to smaller ovals - of which New Zealand has plenty of attractive ones - has surely come.

Saddest of all though is the death of the so-called Boxing Day Test at the Basin Reserve, the only true oval in the main centres. The "tradition" started with Navjot Sidhu nicking a Simon Doull wide in 1998 and ground to a halt in 2002 when the Indian tourists wanted only one-day cricket in World Cup year. These days a Test starting on Boxing Day is not the money-spinner the abbreviated game is - in 2006 it was a Twenty20 international that won the scheduling race. Ashes to Ashes .... Hmm we can always catch a plane to Melbourne I suppose.

What does 2007 hold? A light at the end of the tunnel, a glimmer of hope of putting cricket back on the sporting agenda? In the next few months perhaps? The one-day tri-series in Australia is always a favourite on the box after work in January and early February. New Zealand is playing, Shane Bond is still fit and England is the third side, so good times will follow. Outside of that New Zealand has a rough chance at the World Cup but there's not a lot else to come: the Twenty20 Championship in September before a yet-to-be confirmed trip to South Africa for Christmas.