KEY POINTS:
Wave goodbye to the '80s. Andy Moles' appointment to coach New Zealand has seen another of the old crew disappear.
John Bracewell was part of an era that helped define modern New Zealand cricket, set standards that, with the exception of a period from 1999-2000, future generations
were able to live up to.
But the times, they have certainly been a-changin'.
Moles is the last of the big appointments in the New Zealand Cricket's massive restructure. No wonder Justin Vaughan admitted it felt like they had "climbed the hill".
Where once the Hadlees, the Sneddens, and Bracewells bounced down the corridors of power, of that cussed era only John Wright remains. Justin Vaughan, who took over as chief executive when Martin
Snedden left to lead Rugby New Zealand 2011, has not so much taken a new broom as, in the word of one former employee, "napalm" to the place.
In June he announced the scrapping of 11 positions and the creation of 20 new
ones his bid to make NZC a "world-class organisation".
Bracewell is gone, manager Lindsay Crocker is likely to follow, Dayle and Richard Hadlee have left too. Snedden left, obviously, and his troubleshooter Steve Addison left recently as well. Long-term staffers such as umpires' boss Brian Aldridge, medicos Warren Frost and Dayle Shackel, and development coach Alec Astle left.
Most of the marketing and commercial departments are gone, too, as just two of nine pre-restructure staff remain. Board chairman, Sir John Anderson, Vaughan's protective cloak if you like, retired.
By any organisation's standards, that is a massive amount of intellectual property to walk through the doors.
When you combine that with the player retirements and defections, the past
12 months have equalled, if not surpassed the turmoil of the 'players' strike summer'.
In the middle of it stands Vaughan.
"Absolutely, it's been tough," he said of the restructure and turnover of staff. "As an organisation we haven't been through that for a long time and it's something I wouldn't want to go through every year. But with the seasonal nature of the sport we had to do it now or wait until winter next year and there was no point in that.
"It feels like we've got the people on the bus now," Vaughan continued. "The coach appointment was the last of the really critical ones."
When Vaughan came into the job a little less than 18 months ago, the landscape began to change rapidly. India started shimmering like a modern-day El Dorado and that came with good and bad.
The good: a broadcasting deal with Sony Entertainment Television worth US$50 million that has opened the door to lucrative shirt sponsorship with Dubai-based Dheeraj and East Coast LLC (DEC); and lucrative Indian Premier League contracts for the country's best players.
The bad: being bullied by the BCCI into effectively banning any New Zealander in the Indian Cricket League from representing their country.
"We lost guys from New Zealand cricket we never should have," said a source familiar with the negotiations who did not want to be named. "It is not the way you should do business. To me, it smacks of seedy alleyways and men with baseball bats. That is not the way to advance your game."
Vaughan now speaks of the increased "clarity" on the issue, meaning players who sign with ICL know the score before they put pen to paper now, cold comfort for the likes of Shane Bond.
Vaughan is also hopeful that the two leagues will eventually find a way of peaceful co-existence, "though I'm not holding my breath".
Until that he day, he has plenty of other issues on his plate - like co-ordinating a bunch of new staff about as experienced as the Black Caps top order.
