Hadlee and Reid delighted with New Zealand's mental strength

New Zealand's ability to overcome the hiccups of their bomb-disrupted tour to Pakistan, the inability to prepare properly due to rain in the West Indies and their controversial end to the one-day series, was a special delight from today's first Test victory in Barbados for New Zealand selection chairman Sir Richard Hadlee.

Holidaying on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Hadlee had to rely on CricInfo coverage to keep up with the news throughout the match but was delighted to be woken this morning by a newspaper reporter to be told the news of New Zealand's 204-run victory.

"All those disruptions could have affected them psychologically but they have overcome them and made history.

"The side is going from strength-to-strength and is well-balanced. All the bowlers in the attack now are wicket-taking bowlers," he said.

Having some pace in Shane Bond's speed was also a decided bonus for the team.

"Shane Bond [who took his first five-wicket haul in the second innings], Ian Butler and Daryl Tuffey are all very inexperienced," he said.

The trio have only 17 Tests between them, but Bond achieved his career-best figures in the victory while Tuffey had his best performance two Tests earlier in the victory over England and Butler, his best, in the second Test against England. In their 17 Tests the trio have now taken 66 wickets between them at an average of 29.63.

This is a far cry from the position New Zealand found themselves in when injury decimated the side on their tour of South Africa at the end of 2000.

Hadlee said captain Stephen Fleming now had options in attack and an ability to keep at batsmen with pace, something that had not always been available with younger bowlers, in terms of experience, coming into the attack when others had been injured.

As a result he was now in a position where if Daniel Vettori couldn't get a breakthrough with his spin, he could go back to one of the fast bowlers to achieve it.

"He now has the armoury to use effectively to bring about success. They are inexperienced, but they are gaining all the time and will get better for it," Hadlee said.

Now that this victory has been achieved Hadlee said it was time to wrap up the series win.

It was a chance for the side to make a statement about where they are at in terms of their development.

"Win one - lose one" had for too long been part of New Zealand's results.

Another win is what the team should be looking for and at the very least they should ensure that if they can't win then they should try for a winning draw, he said.

The victory had also highlighted the recent move by New Zealand Cricket to look after those players who could be classified as Test specialists who, because of the nature of modern touring, don't have the warm-up games to prepare for matches.

"Something different has to be done to prepare Test players. This has proved a point for the preparation undertaken. You can't put a monetary cost on its value," Hadlee said.

New Zealand Cricket's operations manager John Reid said the win was significant for the side.

"It consolidates our third position on the world Test championship and is a very positive result."

He backed Hadlee's comments about the preparation that had gone in for Bond, Robbie Hart and Mark Richardson.

"It was an innovative approach but it has been very beneficial," he said.

Like Hadlee, Reid was most impressed with the mental strength the side had shown after the one-day losses, especially early in the tour.

"They were pretty determined going into the Test series," he said.

Reid also hit out at news reports that were too quick in their judgmental approach of New Zealand's position at the end of the first day.

Such reporting needed to be kept in context within the conditions in which the match was being played.

New Zealand had gained a position that allowed it to go on and win the game from the work done on the first day, but back here all the reports had been about what a disastrous first day it had been, Reid said.

"Stephen Fleming played a man of the match role with his batting by giving the side an edge by making the one big score of the game," Reid said.

By rushing in and claiming New Zealand's effort was sub-standard before the West Indies had batted in similar conditions, the critics had been proven to have made their judgments too quickly.