Bowler Gillespie's fitness only concern for Fleming

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Mar 5 (Reuters) New Zealand pace bowler Mark Gillespie was captain Stephen Fleming's main concern today ahead of his team's first World Cup warm-up match after falling victim to their long journey here.

Gillespie's right arm was temporarily numbed after the Kiwis' day-long flight to the West Indies, according to the skipper.

''Mark has paralysis of his right arm which is not a great thing when you're a right-arm bowler. But that'll be short term,'' Fleming told reporters before taking part in a fielding drill at the Kensington Oval today.

The Kiwis will be aiming to find their feet on Caribbean soil when they take on Bangladesh on Tuesday at the nearby 3Ws Stadium and Gillespie was expected to play.

''Getting used to the conditions is the key one,'' said Fleming, whose team will travel to St Lucia this weekend for their Group C matches against England, Canada and Kenya.

''It's our first taste of a West Indies pitch. If that's going to give us an indication of what the others are going to be like, then we've got to assess it well and make sure that while looking forward, we start getting combinations that we think will best fit the conditions.'' The New Zealand team arrived in West Indies after a day-long flight riding high on confidence having achieved a historic one-day series win over world champions Australia last month.

EMPHATIC WIN Fleming's team handed Australia their first 10-wicket defeat in one-dayers before going on to record an emphatic 3-0 win.

But Fleming, who is his country's leading one-day run scorer with a tally of 7,654 from 269 matches, refused to get carried away by the achievement as his team looked to improve on four semi-final appearances in the competition.

''We felt we were doing some good things before that (the win against Australia), but that we needed to start winning,'' said the 33-year-old left hander.

''By doing that gave us a lot of confidence. We're also realistic that over here, things can really change. The World Cup is not necessarily about form going into the World Cup, it's about form during it.

''Many of the teams that have won the World Cup have had bad form getting into it so while it's good to have a little bit of confidence and belief, it's the form you carry during the two-month period that is going to be crucial.'' New Zealand will open their World Cup campaign against Gngland on March 16.

REUTERS SP KN2149