New Zealand's Shell Cup sides are not playing the limited overs game well enough for the international side to be competitive.

That's New Zealand Cricket's operations manager John Reid's summation of the Shell Cup season to date.

"I am disappointed with some of the Shell Cup scoring," he said.

While more and more internationals are being played to scores of between 260-280 runs, some of New Zealand's Shell Cup games are being contested over much smaller scores and that was not good preparation for international cricket.

Low-scoring matches demand different skills of all players and New Zealand needed its players to be more competent in handling higher scoring games.

Reid was uncertain whether the performances were due to lack of player skills, poor pitches or other factors.

"But I am sure that pitch quality is one of the reasons.

"If we want to take matches to people out of the main centres, we have got a responsibility to see the pitch standards are right," he told CricInfo today.

For New Zealand to be competitive in international matches sides had to be scoring between 230-260 and playing the game the same way it is in internationals.

"There are too many scores under 200.

"When that happens players play the game in a very different approach.

"When you score more than 240 you have to learn to score at that rate and better, and you have to know how to bowl and field to that regimen," he said.

© CricInfo