weekly newspaper. When South African Dave Nosworthy arrived to take up his post as the Canterbury head coach in 2005, it didn’t take long for him to be introduced to the New Zealand way of life. There’s no image consciousness, he says. Everyone is “down to earth, are hard workers and good people, and they get the job done”. This is the modest approach that has meant for years the Kiwis were popular opponents on the international cricket circuit because they could always be relied upon to be good-natured and plucky without really threatening the order of things. But as they prepare to face India in the inaugural World Test Championship final in Southampton, England, on 18 June, the Blackcaps go in as a world-class unit and not quite the perennially outclassed pretenders they used to be.