New Zealand Coach is Former Indian Coach, John Wright; Greatbatch Turns Selector

By pulling off a reversal of sorts, New Zealand Cricket are hoping that the trick is sufficient enough to get the derailed New Zealand cricket team back on track.

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The New Zealand captain, Daniel Vettori, has lost his voting rights on the selection panel after New Zealand lost two ODI series in succession in the Indian sub continent recently. The 5-0 whitewash loss to India was not quite as shocking as the 4-0 defeat to Bangladesh in the ODI series which had caused alarm bells because in less than two months time, the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 is set to be scheduled at the same venues.

New Zealand have traditionally been strong ODI competitors and these successive defeats have caused a great deal of consternation in the camp with some worrying whether New Zealand can get their strategy and execution right in time for the World Cup to avoid an early exit and humiliation. In that Daniel Vettori himself has been stumped for ideas and personnel and will be desperately counting on the return from injury from the likes of Jesse Ryder as also, the return to form from the New Zealand cricket team itself against Pakistan at home to regain confidence when they step on the sub continent turf once more.

The efforts have previously meant bringing on Duncan Fletcher as a batting consultant on the tour of India and now, John Wright, the former New Zealand cricketer who served as the Indian coach, will now take over New Zealand’s coaching reigns from Mark Greatbatch. Instead Greatbatch will be head the selectors’ panel that also includes other former New Zealand cricketers in Lance Cairns and Glenn Turner.

Greatbatch took on the captaincy reins after his predecessor, Andy Moles, fell out with the players. However, while Wright has had international experience and success with India, turning around the fortunes of the New Zealand cricket team that is collectively in the doldrums by establishing a sense of confidence, assurance and consistency of performances to produce the desired results will be a huge challenge for Wright, taking over so close to the World Cup.

While Vettori and Wright will still get to provide their input to the selection panel, by falling back on the old method of selection, New Zealand’s revolutionary idea of giving the captain voting say in the selections has now been abandoned for the moment, leaving Vettori to sort matters in the middle by the team that will be handed to him based on the selectors’ judgement after considering his feedback.

Vettori himself felt that his captaincy deserved to be scrutinized as well under the circumstances but did not shy from continuing into the role despite the demands that have become significantly more, considering that cricket has always taken the second spot next to rugby in New Zealand and the disappointing results would have severely dented cricket’s aspirations to fly in the small but proud South Hemisphere nation.