Kiwi polish looks set to take shine off Team India

That is critical because it sets the pace for the rest of the innings. It allows them to play a floater like Lou Vincent and give him a carte blanche. If a player knows his role, and is comfortable with it, he often becomes twice the player.

They give themselves a lot of bowling options and now have a thrilling spearhead. Without Shane Bond, New Zealand were workmanlike; efficient and patient. Now they have genuine pace with the new ball and Bond is charging in. He has become a little more open-chested, runs in as smoothly as he did and delivers the ball with a wonderful action. And with Daniel Vettori bowling so craftily, there isn’t the sameness to the bowling anymore.

Few players have grown in international cricket as much as Vettori has in the last eighteen months. He is now a truly world class spin bowler and has batted well enough to suggest that the tag of all-rounder might even be his one day. As a result he joins a long list of players who can bat and bowl, invaluable to a one-day side.

It is a pretty impressive list too with Nathan Astle, Scott Styris, Craig McMillan, Jacob Oram, Vettori, Andre Adams joining the brilliant skills of Chris Cairns. And with Brendan McCullum good enough to bat at number six, they have an enviable set of players.

Crucially too they have a settled captain. Teams often play at their best when there is a clear line of authority. When two people are in the running for the same spot, ambitions can become narrower. Fleming is a fine captain, he is also a secure captain. And he is in charge of a team that has had a tradition of maximising ability.

New Zealanders rarely play with the flair more often associated with their neighbours across the Tasman Sea but you can hardly ever accuse them of holding back. They possess a very decent work ethic, often a better quality to possess than talent, and we saw that in the first game with their sprightly fielding and fine throwing.

India, on the other hand, are struggling. They played insipid cricket in Sri Lanka, their new coach wasn’t particularly impressed with the attitude of some of his recently acquired wards and the administration was especially clumsy with the way the captaincy issue was handled.

The captain is insecure, and visibly so, and one of the most experienced bowlers is miffed at the fact that he has been left out of the one-day squad. There is much to be done and much to be cast aside from the mind but there is such little time.

Till breakfast this morning India hadn’t even reached Bulawayo, forced instead to spend a day and a half in Harare. If there was some logic to it, it was pretty cleverly masked. Either the travel agent has goofed or the manager hasn’t looked into the detail or somebody presented the team with a fait accompli.

The little things might seem unimportant in the larger picture but they are symptoms of a malaise. Indifference to detail suggests lack of preparation or a certain cockiness; neither needs to be a member of the team.

A good touring team has somebody to look after the details so that the performers are free to focus on their job. Even our television crews work like that, a good international team must. Some people take time to settle down in a new environment, some travel badly, some may not like the hustle and bustle or arrive-play-go. A good manager will take control of all this and he becomes a critical component of a touring party.

It is essential therefore, and indeed has been essential for a long time, to have a permanent manager; a person the players can rely on and who is happy playing that role. Today the manager’s job is a handout and that is belittling the job. It gives the incumbent no stature and it makes things more difficult for the players. A transitory manager, happy to have his 15 seconds of power, does nobody any good.

India might still play well here but they are not helping their cause greatly.