New Zealand may be struggling under the pressure of injury losses and dominating South African form, but New Zealand Cricket's operations manager John Reid expects some toughening up to be seen in domestic cricket as a result.

Reid returned from a fact-finding mission to South Africa today and said while the injury situation was frustrating, the broad range of players used would ensure a degree of experience would be transferred into New Zealand's Shell Series to the betterment of all side.

"When those players come back into our first-class cricket they will lift the standard all the way and I think that after Christmas we will see that in what will be a good first-class programme," he said.

The side did face a tough time during the remainder of the tour but they had played with a lot of guts during the first Test and played really well, Reid said.

"The first day bowling showed that there was only one bowler who had a Test wicket among the pace attack and it showed. They were nervous and tight.

"But by the second innings the bowlers bowled very well. They had loosened up.

"In the first innings New Zealand batted with too much freedom and in the second innings they were probably 20 overs short of saving the game," he said.

However, Reid was delighted with captain Stephen Fleming's innings.

"It was as good as any I've seen him play. He was very unlucky to get out on 99.

"But it showed mentally he had converted it into a century. It was a moral 100," he said.

For all its misfortunes the team was in great shape and that was a result of the team processes and day in and day out the side was working hard.

"They are in outstanding shape really. It sounds funny, but they took the loss hard but well and are looking forward and positive.

"That's testament to The Management and the team processes," he said.

Reid's trip was a three-fold exercise. The first part was to build a closer working relationship with the players.

That had been successful with several one-on-one conversations during the non-international part of the programme and had allowed him to assess feelings mid-tour.

"We always hold post-tour briefings but they are a few days after the players get home and things get forgotten in that time.

"We had to look at The Management requirements the team has on tour, is it the ideal set up and where we are going with our future structures. It was useful for me and very useful for the players also," he said.

Another reason for the trip was to look for a possible World Cup base for the 2003 tournament. He visited several possible venues and discussed options with United Cricket Board of South Africa chief executive Ali Bacher and would be discussing possibilities with him.

"We needed to check out things like practice facilities, hotels, everything you would need for a team base," he said.

The other reason was relationship building with the players and management so that there could be free discussion on problems whenever they arose.

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