Like Graeme Hick, the Somerset man’s body language is too easily read and opponents know precisely the moment they are getting on top. In a closely fought series, as this one should be, such little things can end up mattering a great deal and Caddick should expect both barbs and brickbats from opponent and spectator alike.At the moment the portable pitch, which was dropped into place immediately after the Super-12 rugby match last Saturday, looks damp and grassy. If it remains so, and Giles is fit to bowl, England will probably play the extra batsman, Mark Ramprakash, and drop an all-rounder, probably Craig White. If the pitch goes flat, though, White, who can reverse-swing with a soft and worn ball, could be invaluable.Whatever the final make-up of England’s side, Hussain believes the vital component will be how quickly his young players adapt to the small details of playing in New Zealand, which are not radically different to conditions in, say, Canterbury or Hove.In the past, it has been England’s habit to start slowly, always a handicap in a three-match series, as happened in India before Christmas. In more familiar conditions, only the confidence should be necessary for England to fashion winning positions and so have the chance of maintaining their remarkable record in New Zealand.ENGLAND (from): N Hussain (Essex, capt), M E Trescothick (Somerset), M A Butcher (Surrey), G P Thorpe (Surrey), M R Ramprakash (Surrey), M P Vaughan (Yorkshire), A Flintoff (Lancashire), C White (Yorkshire), A F Giles (Warwickshire), R Dawson (Yorkshire), J S Foster (Essex, wkt), W K Hegg (Lancashire), A R Caddick (Somerset), M J Hoggard (Yorkshire).NEW ZEALAND (from): S P Fleming (capt), N J Astle, I Butler, C L Cairns, C J Drum, M J Horne, C S Martin, C D McMillan, A C Parore (wkt), M H Richardson, D L Vettori, L Vincent.. If they get panicky enough, Everton will sack their manager, Walter Smith.

They may listen to that familiar incantation from the terraces that it is time for a change, any change. Like few other businesses, the game is about diminishing returns But there is another question. If Everton can afford to lose Smith, can English football?

If they get panicky enough, Everton will sack their manager, Walter Smith. Not if it shows the barest understanding of the forces that have been unleashed over the last few years and are expressed almost universally in yelps of self-interest, against which Smith speaks with dogged rationality.Smith may ultimately be a goner, with his years of beating the odds carelessly discounted.

But if he is dismissed in defiance of the old injunction of the great captain of Everton, Joe Mercer – “if in doubt, do nowt” he once told his coach at Manchester City, Malcolm Allison, as the younger man wrestled over a tricky selection decision – some basic values will be lost not only to Goodison Park but the game as a whole. Values like patience and an implicit understanding that in football, as in life, your only obligation is to do the very best you can.Smith, in triumph at Ibrox Park and on the edge at Everton, is plainly the same man, and if he goes it will be for what? Who could put it at more than a sweaty roll of the dice?Everton, no question, are in a tight position and it is reasonable to assume that even Smith may be wearying a little of the annual battle for survival he has been required to fight ever since arriving from Scotland.The board is now hearing loud cries for the manager’s dismissal, and they can be sure that with the distraction of the FA Cup surrendered so haplessly at Middlesbrough on Sunday only a dramatic upsurge in Premiership form will do anything to dissipate the pressure. This side, that is, of chopping off Smith’s head.Yet what would accompany such a move? A significant injection of cash for the new man, a real engagement of the problem that has faced not just Smith but his immediate predecessors, Joe Royle and Howard Kendall? No, claiming Smith’s head would create only the illusion of a fresh start It would engender a brief honeymoon for the new man. But, beyond that, it is hard to see the point.Smith has been down this way before, not because of professional inadequacy but because of the grinding reality of his club’s situation. Everton are the threadbare aristocrats with leather patches on their sleeves, and at this point of household crisis it is hard to imagine the practicality of hiring a superior butler.

Smith knows the form; he knows both the means and the etiquette of survival He does not heap blame on the dressing-room. He juggles with Paul Gascoigne and David Ginola not out of any belief that they retain much of the blazing quality of their youth, but because he knows that they are around the best his employers can manage to hire. In the right circumstances, they have might have something to offer, so Smith plays the game of eking out the budget, spreading the best butter thin.On Sunday he came as close as he ever had to rounding on his players. The irritation showed on a face of character which frequently breaks into a wry expression Everton imploded. They chased the game, surrendered all composure, especially at the back. Plainly he had not counted on that, and it was disappointing. Not scandalous, not a threat to the bread on his table, not something so bad that he needed Doomsday imagery Disappointing, that’s all.