Cairns changes won't be obvious but results should be

Changes Chris Cairns has been looking to make to his bowling action since returning from the tour of Australia will not be apparent to fans.

Rather, they are contributing factors to the development of the all important rhythm that gives sting to his bowling.

Coming back from injury, Cairns had to learn how to bowl again without injury.

He said that it was 1999 when New Zealand beat England 2-1 in England and then came home to beat the West Indies 2-0 that he bowled at the peak of his powers.

Having bowled for two seasons since then with injury worries Cairns had made allowances in his action to reduce the amount of pain his action cause him, and this had resulted in subtle changes that had to be ironed out of his system when he returned.

That was why he spent much of last week working in the seclusion of the High Performance Centre to get his action ironed out.

Much had been made of his ball release, but that was the end product of the machinations of his body to cope with the workload.

"The ball release is only the end product. Getting my action right will fix the ball release," he said.

Cairns said concerns about him had to be kept in perspective.

"I've been out for nine months. My body had adapted to bowling with an injury and I had to unlearn all that," he said.

There was never any doubt that he would be taking part in the Bangladesh series.

Test wickets and Test runs were up for grabs while the Hamilton pitch is the closest in New Zealand to Australian conditions.

Cairns did not know whether he would be given the new ball tomorrow. That was a call that Stephen Fleming, the New Zealand captain had to make, just as he had in Australia when he decided which bowlers he felt would make the right impact at the right time in the game.

It was an extra pressure on him to have the public's expectation riding on his shoulders but he said that wasn't a concern because his own expectation was higher than most other people's.