Test stats tell a grim story

New Zealand's six-month Test journey began in steamy Chittagong and ended in wet and windy Wellington this week, notes David Leggat, and the bare bones of New Zealand's nine-match campaign aren't impressive. Because in those nine Tests there was just one win.

In those nine Tests New Zealand fielded 19 players. Five played in all nine Tests - Daniel Vettori, Jesse Ryder, Ross Taylor, Brendon McCullum and Iain O'Brien. In a country this size, wonders Leggat, are there 19 Test-quality cricketers?

Read on in the New Zealand Herald.

In the Dominion Post, Jonathan Millmow, Fred Woodcock and Sam Worthington cast their cynical eyes over the good, the bad and the ugly of all levels of cricket this summer in what they call 'The A to Z of the cricket summer'.

A is for the Average Test team that we have become, average being the kind way to put it (after all, it is the end of the season). On the upside, in Jesse Ryder, Ross Taylor and Mark Guptill, we might, just might, have better times on the horizon. Can we have Shane Bond back too, please?

B is for Blog. Respect to Iain O'Brien for his sometimes wacky but always entertaining blog entries on the internet. Luckily for Obber, they weren't the only things keeping his name in the headlines, as he had a pretty decent summer on the field, too.

The list goes on ...