Hadlee rallies New Zealand for Australia ODIs

Richard Hadlee, the legendary New Zealand allrounder and current chairman of selectors, has a simple message for the team heading to Australia for the Chappell-Hadlee Series - fight them in the trenches and aim to be a hero.

Hadlee considers the 14-man squad to be one of the most inexperienced New Zealand sides, but with Australia in a rebuilding phase he refused to regard the tour as a lost cause. He said the key was for New Zealand to "front up" to the Australians, starting with the first of the five-match encounter in Perth on Sunday.

"It's a huge and daunting challenge, but you have to approach it the same way as in the past, you have to take them on," he told the Dominion Post. "They are going to try and dominate you with a physical and verbal presence as they have done historically.

"You can't afford to be intimidated. Sure, you are playing them in their backyard so it makes it harder, but it's the same old message you have to front up, you have to want to be there, you have to want to execute your skills and be a hero."

The team has a lot of new faces - 19-year-old left-arm fast bowler Trent Boult, Central Districts allrounder Brendon Diamanti, the new batting pair of Martin Guptill and Neil Broom - as well as the likes of Iain O'Brien, who has played a solitary ODI, and Grant Elliott, who has played just 11. Hadlee said the challenge for the ODI rookies was to take the opportunity and play with pride, and possibly in the process, earn themselves a professional contract in the Twenty20 competitions in India.

"The opportunity of playing for your country, on live TV going around the world, if you perform, there are all sorts of opportunities with the IPL and the ICL so you don't want to bugger it up," Hadlee said.

He singled out Boult for praise, and believed that New Zealand had a potential match-winner in him. "He looks good, technically he looks tidy, but it is a huge call at his age," he said. Hadlee also highlighted the importance of New Zealand getting off to a safe, yet lively, start through their opening pair of Jesse Ryder and Brendon McCullum and the tactical use of the Powerplays.

"Australia are still No. 1 in the world and the team to beat, but it's a different look Aussie team who have struggled against South Africa, so it might be more interesting than a lot of people think."

Australia beat New Zealand 2-0 in the Test series late last year, and also won the Chappell-Hadlee Series in December 2007 2-0. Hadlee refused to read much into the results of Australia's Test and ODI losses to South Africa at home. "Australia's firepower is greater than ours, [Shaun] Tait is a match-breaker for them when he gets it right," he said. "He is bowling well, he is going for a few, but he looks likely. We don't have that strikepower but we have some useful bowlers so they've just got to be deadly accurate in their execution and have some damn good change-ups. We always need to be a step ahead of them."