No-one in the New Zealand camp was saying yesterday whether beleagured captain Stephen Fleming would have to live out Sir Richard Hadlee's view that Fleming should open the batting against Sri Lanka tomorrow in Hamilton.

There is a fair chance that someone else more suited to the role will be given the job.

Fleming, who has problems enough of his own in attempting to get his own batting back on track while also leading his team back to success, should have put his captain's foot down and said a loud, resounding no.

The simple facts are that Fleming is not suited to the opening role. He has never succeeded in it in the past, and to make him do the job again is to make him a sacrificial lamb.

In a career in which he has played 145 One-Day Internationals, Fleming has an average of 30.66, mainly from batting at No 3.

As an opener, on five occasions, three of them in 1994/95 in the similarly forgettable Mandela Trophy series in South Africa he had scores of 12, 11 and 0. On the two other occasions, in Zimbabwe last year, his scores were 0 and 11. So his average score as an opener is 6.80.

New Zealand lost four of the games and the other was abandoned as a no result.

Playing him as an opener is simply not solving the problem.

By comparison, other players who have partnered Nathan Astle in ODIs over the years are: Bryan Young (63 matches as opener with an average of 24.38), Mark Greatbatch (32 at 30.53), Craig Spearman (45 at 17.15), Chris Cairns (2 at 46.0), Matt Horne (24 at 19.41), Llorne Howell (12 at 23.91), Matthew Bell (2 at 9.0), Matt Hart (1 at 0), Mathew Sinclair (8 at 17.87), Chris Nevin (7 at 23.85), Daniel Vettori (1 at 0), Stephen Fleming (5 at 6.80).

Howell, Nevin, Horne, Sinclair and Spearman were all regarded as potential long-term partners for Astle before being discarded.

If Astle is to be regarded as a dasher, and when in his best form that is what he is, would it be worthwhile having an anchor at the other end to try and ensure a solid start on more occasions than not.

Why must New Zealand be constantly looking to have a flyer at both ends?

What would be wrong with having a support player?

Sri Lanka provided the perfect demonstration of that on Sunday. Sanath Jayasuriya went for the doctor while Marvan Atapattu was the perfect foil at the other end.

When the resource doesn't exist to play that sort of game, other options must be sought.

It is interesting that Mark Richardson is not being regarded as a contender for the opening role.

Throughout the golden era of New Zealand one-day play, Bruce Edgar was a veritable rock in the innings. Yet even he was relegated from his role because he was regarded as a slow scorer.

The record shows that in 64 ODIs he scored 1814 runs at 30.74.

Richardson's career Shell Cup average is 36.47.

This year his average in four Cup games is 50.66 at a strike rate of 65.23.

If a short term solution is being sought, and if Chris Nevin is not preferred as a longer term option, then New Zealand could do a lot worse than looking to utilise the grit and determination that Richardson might give the side.

And their captain could have one less worry in getting his own game right.

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