Very right about our Test Cricket though, horrendous 5 years but one name hasn't been mentioned much in all of this discussion and that is Ric Charlesworth, from all accounts it seems he was given a lot of power and moulded Bracewell a little bit. Certainly in Astles book it seems like he lays much of the blame for the early retirements at Charlesworths door. Would be interesting to learn more about his involvement in all of this.
However I do believe that team we sent to Australia given 2 or 3 years playing 12-15 tests a year it could be a very good side. I haven't heard many doubt the undoubted talent that will develop of guys like Flynn, Ryder, Southee, How. Taylor is there for mind, he is beginning to produce reasonably consistently and with McCullum, Oram and Vettori we have a pretty good nucleus of a side for the years to come. I almost look at this period as being like 96-97 when we were so poor but we had the nucleus of the team that went forward and did pretty well in the early 2000s.
That is an epic post, shows what can be acheived when one is procrastinating from doing readings