New Zealand cricket coach John Wright shocked fewer people than you might have thought when he announced that the upcoming tour to the West Indies (the first in a decade) will be his last with the team. This did not surprise me very much because I had heard plenty of rumour suggesting that his style of 'old school' coaching, while welcome in a discipline sense (perhaps even more to the public than the players), was not successful in administrative ways. An image of a man carrying a stack of disorderly papers comes to mind when others speak of his methods. It seems the media had heard the same thing and couldn't wait to mention how 'unexpected' this was (to them I think they meant) - that's nice, at what point did you think you would care to mention this before now?. This performance review where John Buchanan lambasted Wright for just such disorganisation, was submitted two months ago while this is the first mention of it I have heard from the media.
The main reason for Wright's decision appears to be the difficult relationship between his direct, traditional method and Buchanan's experimenting with every part of the team and cricket structure in the background (personally I keep thinking of a director trying to shoot a film while the guy the producers have sent in keeps second guessing him behind his back; ironic given Buchanan's title but there you are). Think of the episodes that we went through in the mid-90s and more recently with Andy Moles and Mark Greatbatch, this 'parting of the ways' seems fairly calm. There has been a suggestion that the next coach ought to be more in line with Buchanan's thinking and that this would provide a stable base going forward. I am very reluctant to even treat that suggestion with credibility and I would remind the people talking about this, of the previous coaching problems I mentioned above. The main problem with aligning every element of management of the team to one philosophy is that if said philosophy does not fit with the players of the time, it is extremely difficult to remove it without rolling heads or losing players. Examples: Turner/Germon regime caused untold damage in 1996 - to the point where Chris Cairns could have been lost to the team forever (not to mention the damage done to Parore, Morrison and Germon himself), then there was the loss of Astle under Bracewell, Fleming gone prematurely and the Vettori dictatorship.
After all of this I for one would ere on the side of a less philosophically cohesive management structure where strong views are respectfully challenged (please don't make me say a 'free market of ideas'). I do not wish to hear any more idle talk of consolidating power from these 'sports journalists' - it's a trap the team has fallen into far too often. We also don't need to hear from Glenn Turner who is in no possible way neutral on this (the article mentioning his 'views'(/moans) failed to mention his previous coaching role which almost destroyed the team or his obvious conservative approach. It's bad reporting and it's going to get people riled up for the wrong reasons
But enough of this, NZC will continue on its merry way and do what it will regardless of public opinion, common sense or prevailing wisdom. We have a tour to the West Indies approaching and one Neil 'Jesus saviour of man-kind' Wagner has been picked now that the ICC has confirmed his eligibility to play. I will be very interested to see him bowl in a test match but I hardly think he will provide a Shane Bond type spearhead, rather he will be a key ingredient in a talented bowling attack with the likes of Bracewell, Southee, Boult and Vettori that allows me to gaze into the future with optimism despite whatever happens with the coach.
I would add this last point: Steve Rixon took over after Turner in 1997 and developed a young, talented bunch into a world-class team; that end should be the desirable one, how we get there will be fascinating to say the least.
Next time I will examine some of the 'great' batsmen of our time and their home and abroad statistics
Well that's it from here and I hope you join me again
It's good bye for now
