Star all-rounder is hard to fill - Chris Cairns

New Delhi, Oct 9: Missing the services of Chris Cairns, who won them the Champions Trophy in 2001, New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming today said while the void left by the star all-rounder is hard to fill, his replacement Jacob Oram would turn out well for the Kiwis.

''Cairns' retirement is a big loss obviously and we are certainly going to miss him a lot. It's hard to fill in the spot that he has left because it's no secret that he was a great player. But we have to move on and learn to live without him. Jacob Oram has been doing quite well in his place and hopefully he will continue,'' Fleming told reporters at a media session here.

Quite happy to be tagged the underdogs of the tournament, Fleming said his side was fully fit and had its plans in order and therefore he was not concerned about the lack of hype about New Zealand's chances.

''We are fully fit and that's the most important thing for us after all the injury setbacks in the past. We haven't played a lot of cricket in the past few months but have worked hard in the last few weeks for this tournament. We have a balanced side and with Bond back in the fold things are looking good for us,'' he said on the Blackcaps' chances at the ICC event.

The Kiwi skipper is also banking on the recent good results and said their performance in the past few months has helped him develop a balanced squad for the Champions Trophy.

''Our recent one-day record has been rather good and that's because we have been using our players very smartly. We have had our share of experiments and we have tried players in the last 12 months,'' he said.

Fleming, however, ruled out any major experiments in the Champions Trophy and said it will be some time before Kiwis start tinkering with their line-up on the scale of India or Australia.

''We are rather down the timeline as far as experiments are concerned. Frankly, we don't require any experiments as such because we have a talented bunch of cricketers on whom we can bank upon,'' he pointed out.

One of the most successful international captains, Fleming said leading the side in ODI's was tougher than being incharge in Test cricket as the shorter version of the game is lot more stressful.

''Captaincy in Tests is certainly different from one-dayers as a different approach is required in the decision making. One-dayers are certainly more stressful and require faster thinking,'' he elaborated.

Speaking about being in India, where the Kiwis have done well in the past, Fleming said his side has managed good results because of its balanced bowling line-up.

''Tracks here are spin-friendly and we have a world-class spinner Daniel (Vettori). But that apart, even if the tracks turn, the pacers can do well by exploiting the early conditions,'' he said.

UNI