A visit to a surgeon in Christchurch on January 23 will decide my immediate cricket future.

Chris Cairns Photo CricInfo

There is talk of an operation which would see me out for the summer and pretty much the winter as the rehab for this operation is long and extensive.

I had the same op on my left knee in March '94, so going on the result of that op, I'm confident if I do have the same on my right knee that I can be back playing for the Black Caps next summer.

I have to admit that the feeling of disappointment I have with my knee at the moment was compounded by the result of the last one-dayer against Zimbabwe.

I saw the game up to the 15th over when Zim were 70/5. I turned the telly off safe in the knowledge that the boys would do the job and come away with a 2-1 victory against a tough Zim side.

What a surprise I got the next morning when I heard the result. I felt so frustrated at not being there, not being able to help out.

There is one key word that comes to mind in situations like the one in Auckland - experience.

I remember the early 90's when we lost Hadlee, Chatfield, Bracewell, Snedden, Watson and now with myself, Doull, Nash, Allott and Vettori out, it is so hard to ask these young bowlers to step up and perform collectively straight away.

The ideal scenario is to introduce one or two youngsters and blood them with the more experienced players .

We don't have this luxury with the injuries we have.

And with Zim having players who have been around a while now, who have played a lot of cricket, and been exposed to many, many situations in one-day cricket, they kept their nerve and deserved their first one-day trophy away from home.

After being in Zim in September-October last year and seeing some of the hardships these guys have to deal with, with internal politices creating situations that we New Zealanders wouldn't believe is possible, it's good to see them have success because they do work hard and they do possess some world class players.

Back to the situation the Black Caps find themselves in though. The rest of the summer is going to be very tough with Sri Lanka and Pakistan due out here soon.

The experience issue is a tough one because how does a youngster gain experience without playing?

But if the young players aren't performing, how long do you persevere with them, because if you drop them, they can't play and if they don't play they don't gain experience. It's a very tough situation.

In the Test team recently we were struggling in the opening department and were very lucky someone like Mark Richardson has come through and given some solidity to that position.

© CricInfo