Justin Vaughan says the World Cup outcome wasn't good enough.

Justin Vaughan says the World Cup outcome wasn't good enough.

It was hardly surprising when Justin Vaughan's name popped up as a potential replacement soon after Martin Snedden announced he was quitting cricket's top job to become head of rugby's 2011 World Cup organising crew.

Vaughan - the 39-year-old former Black Cap - has maybe unique and certainly ideal credentials to be New Zealand Cricket's chief executive.

International cricketer. Successful double Shell Trophy winning Auckland captain. Well travelled academic and businessman. Why not NZC chief executive then, for Dr Vaughan?

Yet despite being a member of the NZC board, Vaughan didn't give the job a moment's thought after Snedden rang to say he was stepping down.

Vaughan was passionately immersed as the first chief executive of BrainZ. The Australian stock exchange listed company, which turns over around $6 million a year with offices in Auckland, Britain and United States, produces software that allows non-specialist medical staff to interpret brain function tests results of critically ill patients.

Herald cricket writer Richard Boock first raised the NZC CEO possibility with Vaughan, and floated it in a story. Others latched on. One thing led to another.

The decision was made during a Coromandel holiday with his family - wife Michelle, an oncologist, and their children Natalie, 8, Jemima, 6, and Bruno, 2.

"You get very absorbed in what you are doing and BrainZ has been all-consuming," Vaughan says, during a Herald interview at Auckland Hospital.

"But other people, friends and family, picked up on the story. I gave myself a summer holiday to think about it then one night, just as we finished dinner, I said to my wife 'I want to do it.' She said 'Are you sure?"'

Vaughan may be jumping into the fire and a frying pan. Sports management at this level can be a rough ride and he is a relatively young man for the arena. It might even lead to a line or two on a fresh face.

"I guess there's no secret formula to cricket or other sports management that someone from business management can't apply and I've always had cricket inside me," he says.

"It's not just about whether it's right for me of course. I had to ask what I could add to cricket."

When it comes to specifics, Vaughan is still formulating his plans. Luminaries such as Martin Crowe will be consulted. In terms of character and pedigree though and the ability to manage a $40 million a year business, cricket is in promising hands.