'We didn't want New Zealand tour' - Gilchrist

Most of Australia's players did not want to tour New Zealand for the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy, according to the vice-captain Adam Gilchrist. Gilchrist, who was resting while his team-mates lost the series in two games, said the side did not need the three-match contest and freshening up at home would have been a better exercise.

"I'm going to be brutally honest here and say I don't think too many people wanted it on at all,'' Gilchrist said on Inside Cricket. "We've had a very hectic summer. We had a brilliant summer in Test cricket, but then we fell away in the one-day series, and that was very disappointing."

Gilchrist said the administrators had a difficult job trying to fit in the games and New Zealand Cricket was keen for the contest. "But if you had to be really specific about the Australian cricket team, we probably didn't need this series at the moment," he said. "It would have been nice to have that little bit of time for everyone to be at home freshening up and getting ready for the World Cup.''

Australia's first two games of the series were a disaster as they lost by ten wickets and had their total of 336 chased down in the second game. While Ricky Ponting and Gilchrist missed the tour, the team has also suffered with injuries to Andrew Symonds, Brett Lee and Michael Clarke. Australia will attempt to end their four-match losing streak, which has dropped them to second on the world rankings, in the final game at Hamilton on Tuesday.