Pleasantries are over, mutual admiration for deeds over recent months has been dispensed, now is the time for a good old-fashioned ding-dong battle to commence.

It may be the one-day prelude to the real thing, but One-Day Internationals in the year leading up to a World Cup take on much more importance.

New Zealand are looking for a Cup-winning formula for their team, England are looking for a team.

That's the reality as the two sides line up at a rapidly-changing Jade Stadium. Anyone with a memory long enough to remember the ground when it was called Lancaster Park will be stunned when they see the change that has come over the familiar concrete terraces on the western side of the ground.

Now there is a stand, as one member of the New Zealand team put it yesterday, that "makes it look more like Melbourne than anything else". There'll be no problems now with the north-westerly blowing across the ground, this is a pretty sizeable obstruction. Rugby fullbacks the world over will breathe collective sighs of relief.

Cricketers are not so lucky, they have no idea what effect the changes may have on the dynamics of the ground.

Where there may be a problem, especially by the time two Super 12 rugby matches are played on the ground before the start of the first Test in mid-March, is light. Light for viewing, light and heat for drying and growth, light for playing.

But that is all in the future. For tomorrow, the lights of the ground will be on two teams looking to get things right.

The New Zealanders, having been paraded around Australia at the marketeers' insistence, could rightly claim to be feeling more than a little knackered.

CLEAR Black Caps captain Stephen Fleming insists the sheer delight at being home, in familiar environs, will be enough for his team to get themselves up and ready for an England team keen to build on the work they have done in India.

Nasser Hussain has already thrown out advice to his accompanying media pack. This is a long-term campaign to pick up the art of playing one-day cricket to the level that most other Test-playing nations had sorted out years ago.

It has always amused those living outside England that, for a country which plays so much one-day cricket at domestic level, the national team cannot get it right in international play.

Anyway, at least the English have recognised that floggings in the two World Cups held since they were thumped in the final of the 1992 Cup is more than any country should take and they are endeavouring to achieve a higher consistency in their play.

One-day cricket remains a funny thing however. New Zealand have been looking for consistency for years, not only in performance but in team personnel. Every time things look like coming right, another bowler goes down with a malady of some injurious kind.

The curse struck again this week when the very answer to NZC's marketing department prayers, Shane Bond, was forced out of the summer with a suspected stress fracture of the ankle.

They are also looking for a successful opening batting partnership. This is the equivalent of the hunt for the long extinct moa. Ever since someone decided that the then greatest run scorer in New Zealand domestic one-day cricket, Bruce Edgar couldn't open the innings, and the John Wright-Edgar partnership was broken up, the opening position has been a problem.

Nathan Astle could claim to be suffering the wallflower syndrome. You know, the girl at the dance who is forever unemployed. He wants to dance to full effect but no-one wants to dance with him.

It is bizarre that one player can be comfortably ensconced as the most prolific one-day batsman in the country's international history, yet have seen more partners off than Elizabeth Taylor in triplicate.

Runs. Runs at the top of the order make all the difference in the one-day game. Everyone down the order can breathe a little easier and play more like their own game.

Without them life becomes miserable, and to further complicate New Zealand's plot, the new bouncer law has been thrown in for good measure.

Chris Nevin, who could rightly claim he should never have been discarded anyway, gets his chance in these first two games. Lou Vincent drops down the order. Would it be too much to expect that the nearest equivalent to Jonty Rhodes in the field in the New Zealand game could acquire some of the same gentleman's batting habits as witnessed to such good effect over recent weeks.

England could ask, have they found their genuine all-rounder in Andrew Flintoff? What is the future for Craig White? What damage can the impressive left-handers Marcus Trescothick and Nick Knight do to New Zealand's attack?

New Zealand will know by the end of the series if Daryl Tuffey has a future in the One-Day International scene. They will know whether the prospect of two fast men opening the bowling looms with Ian Butler and Bond. They will also know just where Andre Adams fits into the overall scheme of things.

It is a fascinating series in prospect.

Both teams have plenty to find out, about themselves and each other. The new bouncer law has eliminated some of the predictability of one-day play, while the infusion of new blood into both sides has helped ensure what could be the best one-day series in New Zealand for a number of years.

© CricInfo