New Zealand sport does not have a great record for utilising its resources, and cricket is no different to many others.

At a time when the chairman of the national selection panel, Sir Richard Hadlee, notes that there are serious technical problems affecting the nation's batsmen, not only at international but also domestic level, it is surely time to acknowledge a crisis.

Too many New Zealand teams failed to score in excess of 200 runs during the recent Shell Cup series, and the failure to get over the 200-mark is being reflected by the international side.

The facts speak for themselves, the results on the field are mere evidence to the cause.

For too long, New Zealand Cricket, and that includes the latest administration model's predecessor, the New Zealand Cricket Council, ignored the skills of those who have been through the mill and experienced the same problems that are being experienced by modern players.

Players have been left, time after time, to work out their problems for themselves, or by being fortunate enough to ask someone to help them.

But on other occasions, the failure to utilise the lessons learned by great technicians like Merv Wallace, or one of his protoges John R Reid, have meant that New Zealand's international players have been left to learn the hard way.

While looking for avenues to help New Zealand's batsmen out of their crisis of confidence in the future, one consideration should be to hold a think tank of respected experts in their chosen cricket fields to develop a strategy to be implemented throughout the country, through the provincial associations, for the greater good of the game.

The same thing that has happened to New Zealand this season, happened in 1992/93 when Pakistan unleashed Waqar Younis on this country's batsmen, at home, for the first time.

They were all at sea and it took several seasons for the crisis of confidence to be overcome. At that time much of the work was done by the side's captain Martin Crowe.

If nothing else, a mentoring system of respected former players, not necessarily level one, two or three coaches, but people who have been through the experiences and have the knowledge to pass on, should be instituted so that improvements can occur.

It may not be a perfect system, but it could be argued that the existing support structure is not a triumph of technical perfection.

At the very least, the best cricketing brains should be called in by New Zealand Cricket to assess the problems and to assist in planning a strategy for the betterment of all. With a summer next year involving vital tours to Australia by New Zealand, and by England here, New Zealand cannot afford to be ill-prepared.

Those who ignore the lessons of the past are doomed to repeat them, Napoleon once said, and New Zealand's cricketers are the classic case study for that argument.

It doesn't have to be like that, and administrators may be pleasantly surprised by the response when they ask those former players if they would like to help.

© CricInfo