Red-ball cricket takes precedence, at least temporarily, with the start of the Trans-Tasman Tests in Brisbane. It is five years since the New Zealanders have been in Australia for Chappell-Hadlee Test action and for once they start as equal favorites with Australia’s new look Test team badly out of practice against the red ball.

In Boult, Southee, McCullum and Taylor, the Kiwis have four genuine world stars capable of being matchwinners, starting in Brisbane where the Australians have been unbeaten since 1988.

A return mini-Test series from February 12 in windy Wellington will continue the challenge.

Hopefully there will be more Chappell-Hadlee contests in the not so near future. It would have been wonderful if the Kiwis had been given the feature Tests of the summer, over Christmas-New Year.

As it the trouble-plagued West Indies seem standard-wise to be little more advanced than a club team. They could be beaten inside three days in every Test.

Our administrators rather than the ICC must have the power to make the call on who plays when. We’ve known for some time that the Windies were second-rate.