New Zealand can still do better - Snedden

New Zealand still lack the key to winning in one-day cricket, despite their success in Sri Lanka when taking out the tri-nations tournament against the hosts and Pakistan last month.

Having had time to reflect on the New Zealand summer, New Zealand Cricket (NZC) chief executive Martin Snedden said he was "pretty disappointed" that the New Zealanders didn't quite fulfil their potential at the World Cup.

"There were certainly blocks in our way and the Kenyan situation didn't help our players.

"But they didn't really play consistently well under the greatest pressure," he said.

The first game loss against Sri Lanka had been a key factor because it had been a real chance to hit the tournament running but the side didn't play well.

They had a good win to beat the West Indies but they bowled and fielded poorly against South Africa and it took some good batting from captain Stephen Fleming to win the game.

"But in the two key games at the end we didn't follow up after getting into a brilliant position against Australia," he said.

The side had not shown the ability to perform when it was under the greatest pressure points in games.

Going to Kenya and winning would have got the side through to the semi-finals but in the last two games they had to fire once to progress and they couldn't.

"For the 12 months preceding the Cup it, and the Champions Trophy, had been our whole focus so it was a disappointing result," he said.

The side hadn't found the key to winning in one-dayers and considering the talent in the side that was not really satisfactory, he added.

That was reflected in New Zealand's mid-to-lower ranking.

"The Test match performances of the side, however, were really encouraging.

"We deserve our placing of No 3. We perform well overseas and that is not something that other teams do.

"We don't seem to get as psyched out playing away from home," he said.

The side was settled with some key performers like Mark Richardson and Shane Bond and now Fleming.

"There is a solid core now who you can trust to do a pretty good job and there is a good spread of talent. But there are still not enough individuals really firing at the top level," he said.

The emergence of Jacob Oram had been a great help to the side and Scott Styris had been good overall although he now needed to consolidate more as a batsman.

Daryl Tuffey was making a little bit of progress with each outing, he said.