Parore slams Fleming

Adam Parore has come out strongly against the Black Caps and especially captain Stephen Fleming who he described as “uninspiring” and “hamstrung by his inability to lead by example,” in his regular column for the New Zealand Herald.

Parore launched into the attack on the back of New Zealand’s winless campaign on Australian soil, their second defeat coming at the hands of a down and out England side who had just lost their best player, Kevin Pietersen.

“New Zealand’s latest defeat by England is one of our lowest points for many years,” he said

“Watching that game on television I fancied my own chances of knocking up 20 or 30 – and I haven’t played for four years. It was a dreadful performance by the Black Caps.

“The New Zealand players are so far off the pace that they actually look like they are going backwards.

“There is disorganisation at a personal level, and just about all of them appear to be out of form.

“Fleming has struggled for runs and appears hamstrung by his inability to lead by example. Gone are the innovations that made him such a terrific leader in the past. It’s all a bit too patterned and uninspiring and it just doesn’t look like our players are having much fun. There is nothing special about anything we do.

“The problem with an ageing top order who fail to put the runs on the board is that we are always battling to get back into the game and depend on taking wickets at critical times, where Australia show the way by being frontrunners who take the game away from other sides.

“Compare our top order with Australia’s, and you just know that we’re never going to beat them at present.”

Fleming accepted the criticism from Parore and other areas of the media.

“It’s part and parcel of playing poorly, you’ve got to expect that (criticism) and you’ve got to say it’s pretty justified,” he said.

Parore scored 2865 runs for new Zealand in a 78 match career, debuting in 1990 and retiring in 2002.