Phew! I finally have five minutes to myself to reflect on a very hectic seven days.

On the cricket front, the runs dried up with a couple of low scores in the championship and then just 18 yesterday in the limited over competition.

The good news is, however, that the Middlesex crusade is marching on with a hard-fought draw against Nottinghamshire and then a comprehensive win against Derby. We are on top of the table but have played a game more than everybody else.

But we're setting the pace and that's a good position to be in.

Angus's [Fraser] injury hasn't completely recovered so I've had the reins again this week. Is there a coincidence with my drop in form?

The last couple of days we have had the company of Lou Vincent and Matt Sinclair, who are staying with us while they do some training at Lord's. Mark Richardson has been in charge of gathering the troops together for some quality training and also a chance to catch up and see what everyone's up to. Andre Adams, Chris Drum and Kyle Mills make up the group.

One thing I've missed since being over here is the opportunity to play golf, but with the three day win against Derby and then a day off today I've been able to wipe the cobwebs off the clubs and tee it up. There are some lovely courses about, but with the traffic it can be a nightmare finding the time. Lou Vincent certainly enjoyed the fresh air, cleaning up with consummate ease. The only thing Lou found difficult was swinging his club while talking on the phone, as he is the cell phone king.

There has been a lot of talk over here again this week concerning match fixing with the release of the Condon report.

As an international player it saddens me every time it makes the papers and as New Zealand captain it makes me extremely angry when I hear which games are mentioned.

As a team our fortunes often fluctuate and our results can be mixed.

But we have the ability on our day to beat any side in the world. With this in mind it makes us a dangerous team to play. Sadly it also seems that when we do play well, and beat more favoured opposition, people see it as suspicious.

I take the most recent example when we dismissed Pakistan cheaply twice to win the last Test and square the series in Hamilton.

A great win in conditions that suited us better than the first two tests that were played. The size of the win prompted comment from many areas including our own media. No matter how tongue-in-cheek it is written, it takes the gloss off the win.

I then watch England win comprehensively at Lord's in almost identical fashion to ours against the same opposition. The wicket was similar to Hamilton and the mode of dismissal for several of the batsman was an action replay. The game lasted the same amount of time. This win was celebrated not investigated and this, as captain of a side striving to achieve, is frustrating.

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