The Black Caps are a festering boil

So much good news currently abounds on our sporting front.

I can only assume that's why our muddled Black Caps captain desperately wanted to share in some of the feel-good vibes when he was desperate to point out that there were positives to be taken from the latest Black Caps debacle.

Losing 8 out of 9 games on tour amounts to a full-on disaster and having Ross Taylor telling us that Martin Guptill's batting was ok or it was an invaluable experience for the young members is simply patronising nonsense.

In fact, Ross Taylor's namby-pamby style is really starting to get to me and leads me to the five most critical home truths this excuse for our national cricket team needs to confront.

1. Ross Taylor has had his time in charge and along with John Wright, needs to take the exit door.

His captaincy ambles along and appears hesitant and waiting for something to happen.

He mumbles in interviews in half-truths clutching at irrelevant, itsy-bitsy, weak excuses.

He is a cardboard cut-out of a leader of men.

So who should be captain you ask?

The best of the three to four young enthusiasts in the team with captaincy experience who will grow into the role and show twice the enthusiasm Taylor does.

And that probably precludes Brendon McCullum who appears to have made IPL and the cash-grabbing that goes with it his overwhelming priority.

2. Dan Vettori is a relic who has become bigger than the game here in New Zealand.

Dan drops in and out of whatever form of the game tickles his fancy and his wallet at the time.

The only predictable fact today about this once notable all-rounder is his total inability to take test wickets when it counts.

The last time he spun the Black Caps to victory feels like it was around the time when six o'clock closing was extended.

3. Dan Vettori's apparent, honorary, life-long membership of the actual playing XI doesn't just stop there.

Such is his mana and the friendships he's formed, he has the power to drag along with him tired old has-beens like Jake the Fake Oram and partial has-beens like Kyle Mills and Chris Martin.

It's way past time that Vettori who's a distant memory of his former glory, Oram who's a professional crock, Mills who's lost all of his impact and Martin whose fading, whirly-gig, strike bowling ability warrants his inclusion less and less when he bats and fields like an eleven-year old.

4. It's time to put an end to the tail wagging the dog, however thin our talent-base is at any one time.

Brendon McCullum is so close to a free agent, his contract appears worthless. He turned up in the Caribbean when it suited him.

The IPL and the swags of riches are his masters, not his country.

Again, I say good on him but let's not fool ourselves that such a blatant lack of accountability is going to ever breed depth and consistency in the best interests of the game in this country.

Cut him loose and give him the time to weigh up whether his bank balance or that cap with the silver fern on it means more.

5. And finally, it must never,ever happen again where a redundant coach who had handed in his badge and had lost all interest in the job before the tour started be put in charge for an upcoming tour.

The Black Caps are a festering boil on an otherwise pretty rosy sporting landscape in New Zealand right now.

We can only hope that the new coach, Mike Hesson sees the need to confront the issues above with haste.